Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
For his follow-up to his Swedish vampire film, “Let the Right One In,” director Tomas Alfredson has chosen a subject no less ambition: a feature adaptation of the John le Carre novel, “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.” Already made into a classic miniseries back in the ’70s, Alfredson aims to return the spy genre to its roots of top secret investigations, Cold War paranoia, and that most important of rules…never trust anyone. All due respect to that iconic British spy, James Bond, but this is what a real spy thriller looks like.
The film takes place in 1973. In less than 20 years, the Cold War will be over, but the agents at MI6 still have their guard up, especially when rumors of a Soviet spy begin to float around. After the seeming death of an MI6 agent, Jim Prideaux (the superb Mark Strong), in Budapest, the head of MI6, Control (John Hurt), and George Smiley (Gary Oldman) are forced into retirement. However, Smiley is coaxed out of retirement when a member of the British Cabinet catches wind from an informer (the excellent Tom Hardy, who matches his performance in “Warrior” with his force and feeling) that yes, there is in fact a mole at the agency. Before he retired, Control had the identity of the mole reduced to five people: “Tinker” (Percy Alleline, played by Toby Jones); “Tailor” (Bill Haydon, played by Colin Firth); “Soldier” (Roy Bland, played by Ciaran Hinds); “Poor Man” (Toby Esterhase, played by David Dencik); and “Beggarman” (Smiley himself). With the help of an aide, Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch), George must infiltrate MI6, without even stepping into the building, and put the pieces together to find the truth.
Well, that’s the story in a nutshell, although if you find the film a tough nut to crack, narratively speaking, I wouldn’t be surprised: though the script by Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan is refreshingly intelligent and relatively straightforward, to call the film labyrinthine would be putting it lightly. But Alfredson guides us ably through the fog with a focus of character that is enhanced by the moody cinematography (by Hoyte Van Hoytema) and music by Oscar nominee Alberto Igelsias, which brilliantly adds to the tension as Smiley gets closer to figuring out who the spy is. All that being said, however, it’s the cast that makes “Tinker Tailor” bristle with suspense and nuance, led by the never-better Oldman, who is on slow-burn mode as Smiley, and all the way down the impressive cast list, including old pros Firth, Jones, Hurt, and Hinds, as well as a breakthrough performance by Cumberbatch, who has a particularly tense scene at MI6 when he has to deal with the new heads of the agency (“Tinker,” “Tailor,” and “Soldier,” among them) while trying to remove an important clue. The film’s slow pace somes stalls, but by the end, you still can’t wait to see what might be in store for Smiley next.
