Running Time: 2 hours and 7 minutes
Rating: R
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Quick Impressions:
I’d heard that this film is difficult to follow. My husband and I laughed about that before the movie started because we hear that so often, and in almost every case, the “impossibly confusing” film in question turns out to be perfectly easy to follow (provided that you’re watching it free of distractions).
I must admit, however, that Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy really is legitimately difficult to follow, and for that reason, it might not be a movie for everyone.
Why is it so hard to follow? Simple. It’s disorienting.
If you’re like us and go in blind (not having read the book or any literature about the film), then you’d better pay attention because the film itself doesn’t rely on any of the customary courtesies usually included to orient the audience.
When the film starts, we’re not given any kind of written prologue explaining events up to that point. We’re not given the date. We’re not given the backgrounds (or initially even the names) of the characters. For that reason, we’re not sure which characters deserve our sympathy. We have no idea of the scope of the story, and for several minutes, we’re not completely sure of the plot, either. We’re simply dropped into a secret conversation, dropped into a botched mission, dropped into Hungary, dropped into confusion.
But this is deliberate. The viewer is deliberately disoriented, so is that really a problem? The movie isn’t trying to be clear and straightforward and failing. It isn’t badly written and confusing. It’s well written and deliberately disorienting. (And if you miss anything—because, say, people come in after the movie has started and ask you to move so they can get to the two empty seats to your left—you will always wonder, “Did I just miss the most crucial information in the movie?”)
The thing is, even if you don’t follow each little thing as it happens, even if you don’t know exactly what’s going on, by the end of the movie, surely you’ll have the general idea. Once you get to the point when people start confessing things or denying things or referring to each other by name in long conversations, you’re going to catch up. It’s inevitable.
The Good:
I loved the Hollywood version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but that movie had a major failing. By adhering to certain cinematic formulas, it gave away the ending. Of course, if Fincher’s film had made the mystery more difficult to solve, it might have lost some audience members.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy doesn’t fall into that trap. Predicting the ending is not easy. Rather refreshingly, this film doesn’t hold your hand. If you get lost in the labyrinthine plot, you’d better find your way out again. The movie’s not going to slow down and come looking for you.
Is it possible to guess the ending? Of course! Gary Oldman’s Smiley (possibly the best name ever for a tight-lipped, British spy) is trying to find a mole, a double-agent. There are only a handful of suspects—alphabetically, Alleline, Bland, Esterhase, Haydon, and (to make things exciting) Smiley himself. So, of course, you can guess. Even if you haven’t seen the film yet, you can guess right now. Go ahead and guess. Knock yourself out! You have a twenty-percent chance of being right. But you won’t know for sure until the final scenes of the film, and that leaves a lot of room for second guessing.
Another thing that makes guessing tricky is that it takes a while to figure out just who all of the gentlemen named above are. Matching names to faces and remembering them will likely require your full concentration. So if you’re like me, you’ll spend a lot of the first part of the movie thinking, They’re making Toby Jones look too suspicious. So it can’t be Toby Jones. Unless it’s a trick. What is this Alleline thing they keep talking about?
Part of what makes the film so bewildering as you watch for the first time is that all of the principal characters’ names sound like insurance companies or investment bankers or government agencies. Until Gary Oldman’s lengthy monologue about meeting Karla, I honestly wasn’t sure if Karla was the name of an individual or the acronym of a spy ring. (It’s hard to know what’s a name and what’s not. John Hurt’s character is called Control. Surely that’s not his name—is it? But that’s what they all call him when the rest of them go by their surnames.) (And what makes us so sure we can trust Control, by the way?)
Also, the suspects spend almost all of their time together and have all known each other since forever (or at least since World War II). And every one of them is played by a respected actor (Toby Jones, David Dencik, Ciarán Hinds, Colin Firth, Gary Oldman. The least famous of the bunch over here is David Dencik, and he’s still a very established Swedish performer).
Here’s the thing, though. This isn’t a mystery. The audience is not supposed to be figuring out the answer. As a first time viewer, you do not have the expertise or the information to figure out which one of these long-time colleagues is the mole. Nobody knows for sure until the end of the movie when the mole walks into a trap and reveals himself.
I think the movie’s choice to go the disorienting route is a good one. It’s intellectually exciting to have to put together a puzzle even as the picture the pieces form is changing. Surely that’s what it feels like to be an actual spy (although the actual spies would have more to go on since they would surely know how to match their colleagues’ names and faces).
The film also contains some fantastic performances. At first, Gary Oldman’s Smiley seems a bit distant and austere, but by the end of the movie, you’re practically in love with the guy, largely because he’s the only person you get to spend much quality time with. Other standouts are Mark Strong, Tom Hardy, and Benedict Cumberbatch because it’s easier to become emotionally invested in characters who reveal some of their emotions to us. For that reason, Kathy Burke as Connie Sachs also makes a favorable impression on the audience. Not only is she one of the first characters who behaves like a warm, open, human being, but she also supplies tons of information that is absolutely crucial in our quest to figure out who everyone is and how they fit together.
Best Scene:
My favorite sequence of the movie was Ricky Tarr’s recollection of his failed mission. I must admit, however, that when Tarr first showed up, I was so preoccupied with Jim Prideaux that I still have no idea where Tarr came from. I’m not sure if the film introduced him in some way that I missed or if he really did show up out of nowhere (though certainly after that first scene, everyone seemed to be talking about him constantly).
I thought, Who is that guy in the shadows? Is that Prideaux? He looks strange. I wish he’d come out of the shadows. Who is that? It’s Tom Hardy! It’s Tom Hardy!
For me, the movie really picked up when Tarr showed up because he injected so much feeling into the story. (Tom Hardy can emote like no one else.)
Best Surprise:
If you go in blind like I did, the entire movie is a surprise. You don’t sit there waiting for a big twist because each new scene is a twist. It’s very gratifying when you finally watch a scene and realize to yourself, I know everyone’s name and what they’re all trying to do and why this is happening and what’s going on. This will take a while.
Most Suspenseful Scene:
I love the character of Peter Guillam (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) because he’s one of the few people that seems trustworthy (though you never can tell). I love the sequence when Smiley sends him into “the lions’ den.”
Most Oscar Worthy Moment (Gary Oldman):
Even if Gary Oldman gave the world’s worst performance in this film, it is absolutely shameful that he’s never been nominated for an Oscar before (and the same can be said for Max von Sydow). Fortunately, his performance is great.
It takes a while to warm up to Oldman’s Smiley because he’s one cool customer, but somehow by the end of the movie, you really love him and feel like he’s the greatest guy you’ve ever met. I’m not sure how exactly this happens. Oldman does a commendable job of somehow emoting while acting reserved.
Certainly the moment that stands out as “the big Oscar scene” is his impassioned monologue about meeting Karla, though he’s also very good in the Christmas party flashback, watching his wife out the window.
When he talks about Karla, Smiley reveals an unprecedented amount about himself. It’s like listening to Sherlock Holmes wax poetic about Moriarty. Smiley sees Karla as the antithesis of everything he believes in, so every trait of Karla’s he chooses to dwell on reveals a corresponding truth about Smiley (or at least about the way he sees himself). This allows us our first genuine insight into the character and also makes the mole seem more despicable (and almost pitiable, tragic) since based on what we’ve heard about Karla, he can’t possibly have an ounce of respect for the British agent he’s using for his own ends.
The Music:
Alberto Iglesias’s score is also Oscar nominated and thoroughly deserving of the honor. It is unusual and always seems apt. The movie’s soundtrack works very well in general. I love the effect of the final song, though I realize that’s not technically a part of the score.
Visually:
Everything looks bleak in this movie. It looks like the 1970s. (Good thing, too, because they’re sure not going to tell you it’s the 1970s! You can torture them if you want. They’ll never tell you!)
The Negatives:
This movie isn’t for everyone because it demands your time and full attention. You have to watch attentively and think hard just to figure out what is going on (on the most basic level). That’s not a challenge that will seem worth it to everyone. People who go to the movies mainly for mindless escapism will probably only find this film worthwhile if they use the two hours to take a nap. I’m not finding fault with such viewers or with the film. This is not a movie for everyone.
That said, everyone sitting around us seemed to enjoy it. Even the two women who came in late and took bathroom breaks at crucial moments remarked to one another how good the movie had been as the credits rolled.
The biggest flaw that I find with the movie is this. Smiley and the investment bankers have known and trusted each other for decades. That one of them is a mole is simply heartbreaking for the others and seems to be a large part of the reason that most of them keep denying that a mole exists. It’s often emotionally easier to deny true betrayal. But we don’t really get a sense of this until the end of the movie. We care about all the characters much, much less than they care about each other.
I’m not sure how this could be remedied. It’s hard to understand the emotional core of characters if you don’t even know who they are in the most superficial way. Flipped on its head, I suppose this negative could be a strength. Life is like that, too. Everyone is just as human as everyone else—we just don’t know some of the people well enough to see their vulnerabilities.
Overall:
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is not for everyone, but if you’re interested in seeing it, you probably should. It has a fantastic cast and a genuinely puzzling, suspenseful story. I am positive it would improve with multiple viewings and look forward to seeing it again.