Cinema Review: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

James Bond might be cinema’s most famous spy, packing the gizmos, the gadgets and the girls, but when it comes to high-level on-screen deception, he has nearly met his match with grizzled legend Gary Oldman playing MI6 man George Smiley in the film adaptation of John le Carré’s tense commie-baiting Cold War novel first published in 1973.

Alec Guinness brought Smiley to the BBC’s screens in the late 1970s, but ignore misconceptions of Oldman revisiting the boring and cuddly spy – he brings a cooler, crueller and altogether darker characterisation to the cinematic rendition. Directed by Let The Right One In’s Tomas Alfredson, it’s taut, twisty and updated for 2011’s cinema-goers. Set in the early 1970s, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy finds recently retired MI6 agent Smiley trying to adjust to life outside the Secret Service. But when a disgraced agent reappears with information about a mole inside the Circus – the British intelligence service – Smiley cannot resist one last indulgence in the world of espionage. Tasked with investigating which of his former pals has turned against the organisation, Smiley focuses on four suspects. They are all experienced, successful agents, but their past histories, rivalries and friendships conspire to hamper his bid to unearth the mole.

The whole experience is unflinchingly authentic and is as low-tech as possible, the polar opposite of Bond where listening to conversations rather than bangs and booms will bring rewards. The film recalls the era in which it is set – when tense paranoia classics such as The Conversation and The Manchurian Candidate dominated Hollywood filmmaking – and it is packed with talent. Alongside elder Brit heavyweights such as Oldman, Colin Firth and Kathy Burke are spunky young bucks Tom Hardy, Stephen Graham and Benedict Cumberbatch.

The performances are all good to brilliant, especially Oldman, but the main problems arise with the screenplay. Peter Straughan and Bridget O’Connor fail to provide any social, historical or political context to give the mole hunt any great urgency or wider importance. Focussing on the overlong saga of the love affair between a British spy and the wife of a Moscow agent is fine but could have been trimmed down to give the main candidates a bigger chance to breathe. Alfredson infuses a sombre Scandinavian melancholy and the film is certainly stylish and evocative enough but it asks the audience too many questions without providing enough answers. At times one feels like begging for more evidence, more back story, more understanding and all we are left is Smiley randomly having a breakthrough justified with no real rhyme or reason. Ultimately, Alfredson nearly makes Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy emotionally vacuous – the revelation is nowhere near as astonishing as it should be and some members of the audience will end up simply not caring. In contrast, with a grown-up thriller some may argue the whole point is to become engrossed and draw your own opinions or, failing that, simply admit to yourself that slow-burners where concentration is key are not your genre of choice.



Summary
A standard thriller in which the journey and the disclosure could have been so much more. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is certainly entertaining but thinks of itself as being more intelligent than it actually is with miniscule nuances few will notice.