Review of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) by Joel M — 25 Dec 2012

I do respect the spy suspense flick "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", and I am glad I was finally able to tinker with it. But be ready to put your complete attention to this movie, or else you will be thinking that the movie is a "stinker, failure, duller, please die" type of film. Do not think that this British spy thriller is filled with Martinis, Aston Martins, tuxedos, gadgets, and all those Bonderisms. This is not that type of movie. "Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy" stars the masterful Gary Oldman as George Smiley, a semi-retired British espionage veteran who is forced back into the spy game by a government official to investigate who is a Russian mole in a high-intelligence British bureau called the Circus. Smiley doesn't smile much throughout the picture, and he just wants to make his mark in uncovering the mole, and then nonchalantly leave the Circus. The members of the Circus are a trapeze artist, a lion tamer, and a juggler. Oops! Wrong Circus! Just being a Clown! They really are Percy Alleline (Tinker), Bill Haydon (Tailor), Roy Bland (Soldier), and Toby Esterhase (could not catch his nickname). So who is the Mole? I will let Agent Spoiler tell you, it is.... Kidding! I will not let him commit that devilish cinematic crime. Director Tomas Alfredson does not construct an entertaining movie in "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", but one that is very cerebral and converts you to Thinker by trying to grasp all of the details of the picture, and make sense of it in order to go along with Smileys' uncovering-spy mission. Peter Straughan and Bridget O'Connor's screenplay was one that is a head- scratcher but at the same time is also a head-catcher,whatever that means; actually, what that means is that it's confusing as hell but keeps you thinking about it. Sadly, O'Connor passed away last year before the film's release. Oldman was phenomenal in his Oscar-nominated performance as Smiley. There were high-intelligence acting work also from Toby Jones as Alleline, Colin Firth as Haydon, John Hurt as Control the retired head of British Intelligence, Mark Strong as agent Jim Prideaux, and Tom Hardy as cleaner Ricki Tarr. "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" is a thinking-man or thinking-woman's movie, and the mission to watch it should not be abandoned by anyone up to the challenge of capturing a complex flick.

**** Good.