Review of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) by Dave J — 21 Jan 2015

Monday, July 29, 2013.

(2011) Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

ESPIONAGE/ MYSTERY.

Although, I agree with movie critic Robert Roten that it's so emotionless, it's still absorbingly captivating as ever. Almost immediately, and right along the beginning has to be one of the most boring scenes I had ever seen for we don't really know who's who as well as the characters appear to be bland and artificial for it's like watching "The Tree Of Life" all over again. It states the complicated situation rather than immerses us and it's done in this fashion because it assumes that we already know all the characters involved when that is not the case at all- we don't know about any of them until at least after the movie is finally over. Which I have to say, one of the opportunities to watch this on DVD was so that viewers can make sense of it by the simple press of a button- so that we are able to retract and revisit what we are viewing since some of those images are too subtle for viewers to remember, for instance some of the passerby characters deemed as unimportant are just as relevant as the main ones. Based and adapted by John le Carré's popular novel who was also credited as executive producer and is now a theatrical movie - should not be compared to anything else anyone has ever read and seen before but as it's own film and on it's own terms. If you don't know how to adapt to something that is different that may be different than something you had read and had seen before then you might as well be hiding underneath a rock.

As I've said, at the first 5 or 10 minutes, has got to be one of the most boring scenes in movie history for I can truly understand how frustrating it would be for viewers to watch this theatrically, but in order for this film to be fully understood may require a couple more viewings because it's another one of those films which as soon as you know how it ends you have to re-watch it all over again to fully know that it's self-explainable. It's designed like a math problem, once you already know the answer- you'd want to seek for the solution. The beginning when the guy was shot from behind was not the full story as it turns out that theirs more to it than that. I was even curious to some of the movie's social commentary provided by director Tomas Alfredson as well as it's star Gary Oldman since I wasn't able to understand everything what was happening, which if they didn't say anthing about it at all then my rating may possibly be lower. Anyways, from the first 5 minutes and this was before the title was even shown, Control played by John Hurt instructs Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong) on a dangerous assignment, and that was to go to Budapest to retrieve some important information for a revelation regarding the mole within' the British Intelligence or as they call it the "Circus". Jim who was on his mission then gets shot right at the back as he was walking away by a Hungarian waiter who was serving them as well as a woman holding her baby- this scene is shocking on so many levels because we the viewers are oblivious about it's motivations. The responses as well as the reactions don't come up until much later which softens that crucial scene. Control then dies from old age, and the British minister then recalls George Smiley (Gary Oldman) since he was the only person Contol had ever trusted who has just secretly been reinstated to uncover this mole, but he does this by operating indiscreetly in another secret location. Smiley's right hand man is Peter Guillam(Benedict Cumberbatch) who's not among the top but is still employed in the same office where secret gov't information had been filed. And he is supposed to gather information similar to what a right hand man is supposed to do- similar to what a lawyer would use except that he's doing it indiscreetly. I'll say it once and I'll say it again, the movie uses many flashbacks between what happened before and what is happening in the present which may require viewers to use a remote control to retract what s/he had seen since that was what I ended up doing. For instance, the Russian embassy consolute played a huge part in this movie even though he's not shown very much who happened to be their when Jim Prudaux was shot except that viewers didn't know that at first until much later (using the 'Rashomon' method of multiple camera angles from different directions)and that it is not shown until much later in the movie turning that shocking scene into a self explainable one. Like any kind of complex puzzle, this movie doesn't require one viewing but may need people to look back. And during the audio commentary, I was quite disappointed that not everything was addressed but was still satisfied that some of my questions were answered which is better than none at all giving this movie a solid 80%. It's like a painting where you can't just look at the centre but have to look at everything else too, and that it's not intentioned to those who are impatient since the revelations occur if people are willing to be patient and pick up on it, and films often don't usually do that and can be frustrating to some but fascinating for others.

3 out of 4 stars.