Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – movie review from modmove

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Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a characteristically British film. It lacks all the pizazz of American cinema (David Fincher notwithstanding) with its slow, plodding plot; muted 70's colours (no, kids, the 70's were not all free sex and disco bling); and the archetypal English stiff-upper-lippedness. Odd then that such a film would come from Swedish director, Tomas Alfredson. But judging by his previous film, the much-adored fangless vampire flick, Let the Right One In, this is perhaps not such a stretch.

With his latest film, Alfredson shows himself to be a quiet, confident film maker in the classical mould. Tinker Tailor harks back to a time before CG and high-octane action, when editing, plotting and performance were paramount; when cinema patrons were expected to stop munching loudly on their crisps for two seconds and just follow what's going on screen for a bit. And this is exactly what movie goers must do if they are to have any chance of following this film. After an hour or so of being bombarded by (sometimes seemingly random) exposition, the pieces begin to fall into place - but only if you've been paying attention! Treating the audience with a decorum of intelligence, Tinker Tailor is the antithesis of (the admittedly very good) Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol.

Such a film lives or dies on its performances and Gary Oldman delivers a career best. It's beautifully understated but there's a lot of acting going on behind those eyes - calmly confident, ruthlessly efficient, a penultimate rationalist. In one wonderful scene, Smiley (Oldman) and some fellow agents are travelling in a car in which there is also a trapped fly. After each of the occupant's attempt to inflict violence on the insect, Smiley calmly opens the window and lets it out. We don't doubt that Smiley could kill the fly with ruthless precision and without a second thought but he chooses the most efficient and elegant solution available to him. This one scene - the simple winding of a car window - tells us everything we need to know about smiley. This is direction; this is acting.
Stuart Jamieson
www.tinker-tailor-soldier-spy.com


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