Tinker Tailor Soldier
Spy
Directed By:
Tomas Alfredson
Written By: Peter
Straughan and Bridget O’Connor, based on the novel by John le Carre
Starring: Gary
Oldman, Colin Firth, Toby Jones, David Dencik, Ciaran Hinds, Kathy Burke, John
Hurt, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Tom Hardy.
Director of Photography: Hoyte Van Hoytema, Editor: Dino
Jonsater, Production Designer: Maria Djurkovic, Original Music: Alberto
Iglesias
Rated: R for
language and some brief violence.
When it
comes to spies and the Cold War, especially across the pond in the United
Kingdom, no name is more famous than James Bond. The Ian Fleming character is
suave, sexy, dangerous, reckless, and everything the people want in their
heroes. And then there’s George Smiley, the quiet and extremely reserved hero
of a trilogy of novels by Britain’s other finest, John le Carré’. In Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Smiley never
shoots a gun, much less leave the apartments he works at. He’s not particularly
charismatic and women seem nonexistent to him. He’s not even part of MI6—he’s
retired. But he gets the job done, and the job no one wants to take on.
Mr. le Carré’s
novels are exacting and meticulous, and the latest adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy attempts a
faithful preservation of the spirit of his novel. Having not read the novel,
nor seen the Alec Guinness led miniseries from 1979, I went into Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with little
idea how the Cold War tale would play out. Those expecting a James Bond will be
severely disappointed, but it is in the details—the stern faces that rarely
tell the truth, the subtle shifts in dialogue that unveil information, and the
meticulous details of the environment that reveal secrets—that director Tomas
Alfredson and his truly talented crafters bring to the film that reveal a number of pleasures.
