Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Composite Score: 81.7
Starring: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong, John Hurt, Toby Jones, David Dencik, Ciarán Hinds, Kathy Burke, Benedict Cumberbatch, Stephen Graham, Simon McBurney, and Svetlana Khodchenkova
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Writers: John le Carré, Bridget O’Connor, and Peter Straughan
Genres: Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Espionage
MPAA Rating: R for violence, some sexuality/nudity, and language
Box Office: $81.52 million worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a Cold War-era spy thriller about an ousted British intelligence agent investigating rumors of a mole among the top brass of MI6. A film that requires some initial buy-in, it eventually becomes one of the better espionage thrillers of the 2010s by the time it is all said and done. The film’s plot centers around dialogue, smoke screens, and anecdotal flashbacks, creating a highly character-driven film about spies and double agents. Its performances help make it a stand-out among the other more action-packed spy thrillers of the 2010s, particularly led by Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, and Benedict Cumberbatch.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
A while back, Family Guy made a now iconic joke about The Godfather being a film that insists upon itself, and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is certainly a film that could also fit that description. There is limited character development or story explanation, starting very much in media res, and it is expected that the audience gets and agrees with the motivations of the protagonist. It expects you to want to figure out who the mole is, assuming that you chose this film because you have at least a cursory knowledge of what the film is about. The slow plod of the film’s first act, laying the groundwork for what ends up being a satisfying conclusion, does nothing to alleviate the film’s self-insistence. For much of the film’s first thirty or forty-five minutes, I found myself checking the clock as much as I was engaging with the film. If you stick around past this, the film becomes more palatable and even enjoyable if you have bought in, but it might not be everyone’s cup of tea, so to speak.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a film that builds suspense as it constructs its plot, leaving clues for the audience just as the actors are discovering them, keeping you in just enough murkiness that you want to know what is going on once you have bought into the premise – all told, a solid espionage thriller. The asynchronous nature of the film’s narrative, jumping back and forth between past missions elsewhere in Europe and the “present” in London adds to this mystery and suspense, especially because no indications other than the rare voiceover are given to indicate changes in the time, leaving the audience potentially baffled and satisfyingly surprised when the mole is finally revealed.
Perhaps the film’s greatest asset is its actors. Gary Oldman handles himself with class and an air of mysterious superiority befitting a senior member of MI6 who has been unceremoniously ousted by his compatriots. His in-charge nature as George Smiley plays out well against the frantic foil of current MI6 head Percy Alleline, played by Toby Jones, who is constantly scrambling to cover up missteps and maintain his and his organizations position of power in the British and global intelligence spheres. Colin Firth’s turn as the charismatic Bill Haydon succeeds at getting the audience to like him best out of the four suspects, despite his affair with Smiley’s wife. For me, though, the performance that worked the best and ultimately got me fully invested in the film’s plot was Benedict Cumberbatch’s turn as Peter Guillam, Smiley’s appointed assistant for the investigation and also an active lower member of MI6. His passion for the work that is being done plays out most poignantly when he discovers a possibility that Tom Hardy’s Ricki Tarr has been compromised and feeding the investigation false information. Guillam shows up at the safehouse on a tirade, frustrated that the investigation, and his work in particular, have been apparently a wild goose chase orchestrated by a double agent. His performance in that scene, both physically and vocally, convinced me to follow the case through to its end, just as Smiley’s conversation with Guillam does for him.
Solid acting performances from some of the U.K.’s most awarded actors help bolster Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’s weak first act and propel it forward to a satisfying conclusion for a quality spy thriller film. If you can overcome the film’s self-insistence, it becomes a film certainly worth watching and one that makes sense as one of the Greatest Films of All Time. It does something refreshingly different than most of the other spy films of the decade, focusing on the case work and the undercover work of the agents rather than big action spectacles and chase scenes, while still achieving an air of serious suspense and quality thriller material.
