Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is one of those quintessentially British movies that you get every award season. An all-star cast with familiar British faces (Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, John Hurt) and the rising stars (Tom Hardy, Benedict Cumberbatch), it's a recipe for greatness. Plus it's based on a great novel by John Le Carre and they're all playing MI6 agents: what could go wrong?
Well, depends on who you ask. I thought it was a great film. But I am also a massive Anglophile who thinks anything with Colin Firth has to be a hit. Truth be told, this movie is a bit of a struggle to understand, an opinion that was shared by my friend Christina who saw the film on the same day as me. When we got to talking, we discovered that both of us had identical reactions once we got home. We went on Wikipedia and read the film synopsis. And I believe this will be most people's reaction. The movie is so intricately plotted and twisty that no matter how hard you try, you're going to find yourself lost on some plot point or the other, and that is when Wikipedia is your friend.
The movie is set in the 1970s and follows George Smiley (Oldman), a long-serving agent who has been forced into retirement but is brought back for a covert mission to identify a Soviet mole in the upper echelons of MI6. There are 4 suspects and their code names are Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, and Poorman. Smiley was himself a suspect (codename: Beggarman) but is now considered trustworthy enough to take over the investigation and determine whose codename should really be "Spy." Unlike that other British spy franchise, Smiley is no James Bond. He spends most of the movie sitting in an armchair, sipping some whiskey, and going through reams of paperwork. Indeed, this movie is perhaps the most accurate depiction of what it means to be a spy. Instead of waltzing about in tuxes, notching bedposts, and blowing up villains from their Aston Martins, these spies are clad in tweed, reading over typewritten telephone transcripts and desperately hoping for a telegram that will give them a lead in their investigation.
There are several flashbacks as Smiley considers his colleagues and tries to figure out which of them could be a traitor. Perhaps I was spoiled by Lost, where every flashback was preceded by that whooshing sound that alerted you that you would be jumping backwards (or forwards) in time, but Tinker Tailor does no such thing, which often leaves you highly confused as to whether you are witnessing the past or the present. Sometimes it is very evident, but at other times it is remarkably confusing. I spent half an hour convinced that one of the scenes was a flashback only to discover that the man I thought was dead was actually very much alive and that scene was in the present.
The other problem is the vast array of characters. Unfortunately Colin Firth's character is not named Colin Firth: sometimes people refer to him as "Bill," other times as "Haydon." Since Firth isn't the only character with a name, you are faced with a mass of jumbled first names and last names of all the suspects, all the investigators, all the villains, etc. and untangling them all will make your head spin. So it took me about an hour to finally consolidate the fact that Firth's character was named Bill Haydon and not Bill Bland, or Jim Haydon, or whatever.
These difficulties aside, the film boasts an impressive production design, with costumes and sets that will steep you in the atmosphere of 1970's Britain. It has the look and feel of an old-school spy thriller and even if there isn't much action, the moments leading up to the discovery of "Spy" are just as suspenseful and nerve-wracking as any high-octane thriller. Every single actor gives a fantastic performance and they look like they are having a grand time playing MI6 agents, as you hope they would.
Overall, this is an impeccable period piece that pays homage to the fact that being a spy was really messy work 40 years ago when you didn't have computers and gadgets to streamline the proceedings. Maybe the difficulty in following the plot is actually meant to make you feel like a spy yourself, desperately trying to follow up the leads and untangle the information before the final denouement. After all, by the time I was done discussing the film with my friend and going over all the loose ends I had missed, I felt like I had completed a covert mission of my own.
Well, depends on who you ask. I thought it was a great film. But I am also a massive Anglophile who thinks anything with Colin Firth has to be a hit. Truth be told, this movie is a bit of a struggle to understand, an opinion that was shared by my friend Christina who saw the film on the same day as me. When we got to talking, we discovered that both of us had identical reactions once we got home. We went on Wikipedia and read the film synopsis. And I believe this will be most people's reaction. The movie is so intricately plotted and twisty that no matter how hard you try, you're going to find yourself lost on some plot point or the other, and that is when Wikipedia is your friend.
The movie is set in the 1970s and follows George Smiley (Oldman), a long-serving agent who has been forced into retirement but is brought back for a covert mission to identify a Soviet mole in the upper echelons of MI6. There are 4 suspects and their code names are Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, and Poorman. Smiley was himself a suspect (codename: Beggarman) but is now considered trustworthy enough to take over the investigation and determine whose codename should really be "Spy." Unlike that other British spy franchise, Smiley is no James Bond. He spends most of the movie sitting in an armchair, sipping some whiskey, and going through reams of paperwork. Indeed, this movie is perhaps the most accurate depiction of what it means to be a spy. Instead of waltzing about in tuxes, notching bedposts, and blowing up villains from their Aston Martins, these spies are clad in tweed, reading over typewritten telephone transcripts and desperately hoping for a telegram that will give them a lead in their investigation.
There are several flashbacks as Smiley considers his colleagues and tries to figure out which of them could be a traitor. Perhaps I was spoiled by Lost, where every flashback was preceded by that whooshing sound that alerted you that you would be jumping backwards (or forwards) in time, but Tinker Tailor does no such thing, which often leaves you highly confused as to whether you are witnessing the past or the present. Sometimes it is very evident, but at other times it is remarkably confusing. I spent half an hour convinced that one of the scenes was a flashback only to discover that the man I thought was dead was actually very much alive and that scene was in the present.
The other problem is the vast array of characters. Unfortunately Colin Firth's character is not named Colin Firth: sometimes people refer to him as "Bill," other times as "Haydon." Since Firth isn't the only character with a name, you are faced with a mass of jumbled first names and last names of all the suspects, all the investigators, all the villains, etc. and untangling them all will make your head spin. So it took me about an hour to finally consolidate the fact that Firth's character was named Bill Haydon and not Bill Bland, or Jim Haydon, or whatever.
These difficulties aside, the film boasts an impressive production design, with costumes and sets that will steep you in the atmosphere of 1970's Britain. It has the look and feel of an old-school spy thriller and even if there isn't much action, the moments leading up to the discovery of "Spy" are just as suspenseful and nerve-wracking as any high-octane thriller. Every single actor gives a fantastic performance and they look like they are having a grand time playing MI6 agents, as you hope they would.
Overall, this is an impeccable period piece that pays homage to the fact that being a spy was really messy work 40 years ago when you didn't have computers and gadgets to streamline the proceedings. Maybe the difficulty in following the plot is actually meant to make you feel like a spy yourself, desperately trying to follow up the leads and untangle the information before the final denouement. After all, by the time I was done discussing the film with my friend and going over all the loose ends I had missed, I felt like I had completed a covert mission of my own.
 |
| Just a few of the stellar Brits that make up the confusingly-named cast of characters. |
No comments:
Post a Comment