Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Review

Tomas Alfredson’s adaptation of John le Carré’s novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, starring Gary Oldman as spymaster George Smiley, arrives in cinemas this week fresh from a triumphant world premiere at the recent Venice Film Festival.

The 1970s BBC adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, starring Alec Guinness, was so highly-regarded (in the run-up to this release, it seemed to take on the veneer of legend), that the idea of a slick new film version was predictably met with muted outrage from those who remember and cherish it. They need not have worried. Tomas Alfredson’s fresh take on John le Carré’s novel is every bit as outstanding as we all hoped it would be when it was announced.

Le Carré’s spy world is not one of gadgets, gunfights and girls. It is a grey, seedy world, populated by unromanticised, fiercely patriotic public schoolboys obsessed with gaining the advantage over Smiley’s Kremlin counterpart Karla. Following a failed operation in Budapest which results in the capture of high-ranking agent Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong), George Smiley and Circus head Control (John Hurt) are cast out into the cold. Control is replaced by forward-thinking moderniser Percy Alleline (Toby Jones), who is supported by Bill Haydon (Colin Firth), Roy Bland (Ciaran Hinds) and Toby Esterhase (David Dencik). After Control’s death, however, Smiley is contacted by his former right-hand man Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch), whose AWOL agent, Ricki Tarr (Tom Hardy), has returned with information indicating the presence of a high-ranking mole inside the Circus.

Tomas Alfredson, the Swedish director whose star is most definitely on the rise following Tinker Tailor and his triumphant adaptation of horror novel Let The Right One In, makes the transfer from Stockholm to London effortlessly. His direction guides the audience beautifully along the lines of Smiley’s thinking, simultaneously unlocking the densely-plotted novel through the use of flashbacks and voiceover. The film is not unlike Let The Right One In in terms of tone and pace, and Alfredson handles himself well in spite of the apprehension he must have felt as a Swede adapting a renowned British story.

Oldman has never given a more reserved performance than he does here, and subsequently it is probably the best performance he has ever given. Never has an actor conveyed so much by doing so little – always calm, ever watchful, we only see him show any form of emotion twice, and yet he dominates every scene in which he appears. Even at this early stage, with the Academy Awards still five months away, he seems sure to garner what would, astonishingly, be only his first nomination. He is ably supported by one of the strongest British casts not assembled for a Richard Curtis film in years – Firth (of course), Strong and Hardy particularly impress. There is also a welcome return to our screens for Kathy Burke, playing researcher Connie Sachs.

However, for all its undoubted brilliance, the film feels slightly rushed. Ciaran Hinds isn’t given enough to do in comparison to his fellow suspects, and it might have been worth adding another ten minutes or so to the film in order to deepen the suspicion and muddy the waters a little more with regard to the traitor’s identity. A little more time taken to clarify the various plot strands would also have been nice – codewords, events and different game players get entangled slightly in the film’s eagerness to unmask the mole.

This is filmmaking at its very best. Confident, deft and absorbing, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is the year’s first truly exceptional film. 

5/5