Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy film review

Posted on 17 September 2011
By Andy Johnson
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If one was trying to crack the code behind the box office gold for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, it must be the stellar casting, rather than the fading love for the 1970s TV series.

The choice of Swede Tomas Alfredson as director was also inspired. Compared with his breakthrough Let the Right One In (2008), Tinker Tailor is a period piece which builds on mood as much as drama.

The muted colours of this vision of the 1970s serve to underpin the boredom, paranoia and isolation at the heart of espionage.

And the icy faced anchor holding it all in place is Gary Oldman’s Smiley, whose performance is a delight to behold from start to finish.

He has managed to pull off a coup in capturing the subtleties and shadows of Alec Guinness’ revered role and adding new depth and seduction to the role than his plummy predecessor.

We will be bold and state that Gary Oldman will go down in the history books as one of England’s finest actors of all time. He simply disappears into the characters he plays and often you have to wait until the end credits to confirm it was really him.

As Smiley Oldman evaporates completely. With the air of a man who has been brutally betrayed and a man who now holds the power to exact muffled violence.

Le Carré described Smiley in his stories as ‘small, podgy, and at best middle-aged; he was by appearance one of London’s meek who do not inherit the earth.’

He is pulled back from the brink and an embarrassing early retirement and tasked with finding Moscow’s mole within the ‘Circus’ – MI6.

The sound proof caravan style rooms where they hold their secret conferences seep with paranoia and even their Christmas party featuring a Santa in a Lenin mask, highlights the loneliness essential to being a spy.

Smiley is given a five man shortlist of suspects: Percy Alleline (Jones), an acerbic and pushy Scot whose codename is Tinker: suave, self-confident Bill Haydon (Firth), known as Tailor: gruffly stolid Roy Bland (Hinds), the Soldier: Hungarian exile Toby Esterhase (David Dencik), labelled Poor Man.

Harry Enfield’s erstwhile chum Kathy Burke briefly pops up as more of a distraction than believable research agent Connie Sachs but her passing comment does sum up their condition of being ‘seriously under-fucked.’

In stark contrast is Tom Hardy’s solid performance as Ricki Tarr, the embodiment of a powerful new and bold force emerging within this secret world.

He wears denim and sheepskin as opposed to the grey and brown suits and discovers the fatal betrayal which unravels the world of old guard and exposes the attitude that has been their undoing – that it is all just a game.

Tinker Tailor has been billed as the unmissable film of 2011 and despite all the fanfare and the majority of the audience knowing the plot already – you’d find it hard to argue.

Smiley finishes in situ at the head of the table, taking Control and perfectly paving the way for a trilogy based on Le Carre’s classic novels.

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