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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
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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