Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a big-feel, independent, very British spy yarn with a complicated plot, a purposely-confusing storytelling style, and exceptional acting. I rarely say this but I am sure that it would help to read the book first. As a viewer who did not read the book, I was confused throughout, hoping everything would be resolved at the end. It wasn’t. I turned to Julie and said “You’ll have to explain this to me.” Then, we talked about it all through the credits and afterward. I want to see it again and read the 1974 novel. Originally aired as an almost five-hour, seven-episode BBC series starring Sir Alec Guinness, this two-hour movie loses something in the translation. The Guinness character here is played by the remarkable Gary Oldman, who is splendid as the seasoned, inscrutable, deliberate, unflappable, discerning George Smiley, a lifelong spy who is among the handful of executives leading “The Circus,” the nickname for MI6 or its novel surrogate.
He is one of the architects of a mission gone bad in Hungary, which resulted in the resignation of his boss, known as Control (John Hurt), the leader of the senior team. Control announces that Smiley is leaving, too. Control dies shortly thereafter and Smiley is recruited back by a government leader to root out a “mole” who has allegedly infiltrated the executive team (perhaps Control had this in mind all along). As always, Smiley takes this all in stride as he meticulously seeks out the story behind the Hungary debacle, the behaviors of his former cohorts, and the motives of some new characters like rogue agent, Ricki Tarr (Tom Hardy in a spirited performance), who has inside information about the mole. Smiley uses a young agent, Peter (portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch), to do the legwork, and he is relentless.
The rest is a game of cat and mouse although the pace of the film is tortoise-like. This is a slow-moving, time-jumping film with some subtitles and very dark lighting technique. The layers get peeled away slowly and are revealed to the audience in ways so subtle that they are easy to miss. I am sure that I did. As a result, I couldn’t enjoy the film as much as I would have liked. Think of it as The Odessa File without the intrigue of hunting down a Nazi. That is the movie I kept thinking of. Based on a Frederick Forsyth novel, I found this Jon Voight/Maximilian Schell flick must easier to follow. I am sure my friend, Richard Neuner, who read Le Carre extensively, can offer his take on how true this movie is to the novel. My guess is that the five-hour version did a must better job of capturing the essence of the book.
I wouldn’t recommend the movie to anyone who isn’t ready to work hard, who enjoys a spy-fi, or who hasn’t read the book. I wouldn’t rule out a Gary Oldman Oscar nomination but I think the movie will disappoint at the box office given its estimated $20 million cost.