Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (movie)

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

What an incredibly hard film to write about.

I never read other reviews before writing my own. It’s not that I don’t think that there is value in them, or I wouldn’t be sat here tapping away at my keyboard, I just feel like now I am doing this I want to remain unbiased. The downside here is that, given my inexperience, I have no idea whether I have completely missed something or give away far too much. However, it’s important to me that I don’t just regurgitate someone else’s opinion as my own.

The difficulty with Tinker, Tailor is that it’s a completely different animal to the majority of mainstream films making their way to your nearest Odeon, making me feel completely out of my depth. However, before you stop reading, I can tell you now, this is a good thing, because what it means is the film is so good, I am concerned I won’t do it justice.

I had hoped to read the book before seeing the film, it seems to be that 99% of the time, the book is substantially better. However, my busy holiday itinerary didn’t allow me the opportunity to sit down and get into it.

It’s a pretty famous story, both as a novel, John Le Carré’s most celebrated work, and a TV series aired in 1979 and starring Alec Guinness. If, like me, you weren’t aware of it until more recently; I am sure you can guess, this is a Spy story. However, something else you may have already established is that this isn’t a James Bond or Jason Bourne type thriller. With Gary Oldman playing the main protagonist, this is a contemplative and far more realistic tale.

Gary Oldman is an increasingly rare beast. One of those rare actors whose presence in a film is virtually a guarantee of quality. Tinker, Tailor meets those expectations, with substance prevailing over style and a victory of plot over shock and awe effects.

Playing veteran spy George Smiley, Oldman is beyond reproach. His supporting cast, including the likes of Tom Hardy, Colin Firth and Mark Strong are also excellent; I could find little fault.

In terms of the film itself, it doesn’t follow the plot of Le Carré’s novel to the letter, at least in terms of the first few chapters I’ve read; with the order of the scenes somewhat different. I’ve not read any of Le Carré’s work before, so I don’t know if George Smiley is an oft used protagonist; but little time is given to describing the characters or the setting, with the action, such as it is, beginning immediately. The film is the same, with a few different scenes coving a number of sub-plots, providing no indication of what is to come. Although initially harder to follow, it’s refreshing, because the audience are not treated like idiots who need the characters and plot to be spoon fed to them in advance. Whilst this may end up prompting questions from girlfriends up and down the country along the lines of ‘who’s he’, ‘what are they doing’ and ‘who’s the goodie and who’s the baddie’, it doesn’t take that long to pick up the threads. (Sexist comment for effect, not because I really believe it, there are substantially more idiotic boyfriends than the other way around!).

Some may find the pace of the film slow and it is one of those films that your dad will invariably fall asleep whilst watching. But I would definitely call this a thinking man’s film (more casual sexism there, I blame the English language for that one). If you are in the mood for something clever and realistic, this is definitely for you, as I have said, James Bond it is not. I should probably have mentioned by now Le Carré is a former spy, so there is a decent chance that this sort of thing really did go on.

By the end of this film, you genuinely feel like you’ve been on a journey and that something has happened, there is anough going on that you aren’t ever spending your time trying to work out who has done what but in the end it all comes together nicely. Without wanting to labour the point, although I probably have done, this is not a friday night flick, it is not a date movie and it is certainly not for people who wear Reebok Classics, this is a film for people who appreciate good cinema, if that’s you, go and see it. 4.5/5

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