Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Year: 2011
Running time: 122 minutes
Certificate: 15
Language: English
Screenplay: Bridget O'Conner, Peter Straughan
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Starring: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Toby Jones, Mark Strong, John Hurt, Tom Hardy, Benedict Cumberbatch, David Dencik, Ciarán Hinds, Kathy Burke, Stephen Graham, Katrina Vasilieva

To catch a spy.

Alec Guinness cast a long shadow over the making of this film. The 1979 TV miniseries was long thought to be the definitive adaptation of John le Carré's classic novel, and Guinness' performance in the lead role was also long-considered to be definitive. Turns out you really can have two definitive performances of the same character. Oldman is nothing short of astonishing in this, which takes nothing away from the original masterful performance by Guinness.

Control (John Hurt) is convinced MI:6 has a mole, and is convinced it's one of a small number of people in the higher echelons: Percy Alleline (Toby Jones), or 'Tinker', Bill Haydon (Colin Firth), or 'Tailor', Roy Bland (Ciarán Hinds), or 'Soldier' or Toby Esterhase (David Dencik), or 'Poor Man'. There is also 'Beggarman' George Smiley (Gary Oldman), but as Smiley is our protagonist and Control's most trusted lieutenant, we can right him off as a possible suspect from the off.

Control assigns Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong) to a mission in Budapest to try to identify the mole. Unfortunately this mission goes wrong and Control is ousted from MI:6, and Smiley along with him. When a story told by a rogue agent Ricky Tarr (Tom Hardy) indicates the existence of a mole after all, Smiley is convinced to come back out of retirement to sift out the mole.

The unusual suspects.

Spies spying on spies, tension mounting, lives at stake - sounds super exciting. Except, this isn't most spy stories, and the plot unfolds not through dramatic action and car chases, but by quiet observation, discussions between men in smoky rooms, and watching Smiley slowly piece things together through the paranoia, fear and clandestine meetings. You do have to pay close attention or you can easily lose the thread, but you are rewarded if you can keep up.

One thing the Guinness version does have on this movie is length to allow all the characters and plot threads room to breathe, but at just over 2 hours, director Tomas Alfredson does a fine job of condensing the story while retaining the feel. Alfredson's previous debut feature Let the Right One In already showed he had an astonishing grasp of mood and style, and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy does nothing to change this. The success of the whole thing rests heavily on Oldman's shoulders and he is every bit up to the task; with subtlety in every mannerism, he inhabits the character of Smiley completely.

Pay close attention, and you'll be rewarded with an engrossing story filled with tension, with a lead performance to cherish from Oldman.

Score: 8/10

Generally, there is a glut of reviews all effusive in their praise, but these from James at Reelviews and Stella at Digital Spy thought it was good, but a little too densely-plotted for a film, indicating it worked better a miniseries.