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Friday, December 16, 2011

THE TEN BEST FILMS OF 2011     10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy                8



Gary Oldman (left) and John Hurt in Tomas Alfredson's spy drama "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy". 
Focus Features
  

Tomas Alfredson
, director
Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan, writers (based on John le Carré's spy novel)
2 hours 7 minutes
Rated R for violence, some sexuality/nudity and language
(Focus Features)
December 2011
Gary Oldman, Benedict Cumberbatch, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Ciaran Hinds, Tom Hardy

"What are you then, Bill??"

by Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com        Follow popcornreel on Twitter FOLLOW                                           
Friday, December 16, 2011


A thinking person's film, "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" wonderfully captured atmosphere as well as the zeitgeist of the early 1970s in London, where part of John le Carré's famous spy novel on which Tomas Alfredson's film is based and centered.  The Circus, the preeminent British spy agency has been compromised after a failed mission of one of its operatives goes wrong in Budapest.  The chief of intelligence brings back a fired spy (Gary Oldman) to investigate where the infiltration is in the Circus.

Mr. Alfredson's film is all about thought and perception, filled with nuance and paced with a great deal of deliberation.  "Tinker Tailor" is a chess match with many shaky and unreliable players, and Mr. Alfredson's camera (Hoyte Van Hoytema) glimpses the same scenes more than once, offering different meaning each time.  There's a melancholy and intricacy about the film that is orderly, even tragic, but "Tinker Tailor" is crafted beautifully in all areas.  No flash, sparkles or explosions.  This is the spy world as it really is, dry martinis be damned.

I was fascinated by array of plotters and schemers that dotted the treacherous landscapes of Budapest and London, and the production design by Maria Djurkovic.  The London of 1973 as seen through her designs filled me with memories as a small boy, and in "Tinker Tailor" is more or less exactly as I remember it: drab, rainy, gray and cold (at least on many days.) 

Mr. Alfredson's drama stands apart from the 1979 BBC television series (with Sir Alec Guinness as George Smiley) and Mr. le Carré's novel and resoundingly trumpets excellent work from British, Irish and Welsh acting ensemble that is the envy of the world: Toby Jones, Ciaran Hinds, Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth, John Hurt, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong, Christian McKay, Simon McBurney and Mr. Oldman, who is superb as Smiley.  "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" lives and breathes so well, and in 2011 it was refreshing to see a film so definitively lined with emotion, rich relationships and finely-tuned filmmaking that expressed the nuances of a complex novel, yet stood alone so confidently.

Full written review here

NEXT: NUMBER 7

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