FILM REVIEW: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

10 out of 10

Guessing games with Gary

Finally, something the Poms can be proud of. That is other than,... well I can't think of anything off the top of my head, but Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a film they can rightly boast about with pride, for it is something truly British, and truly brilliant.

The film is an embodiment to loyalty. It is central in the narrative theme of the story. It is seen in the detail of the production design, and it is committed without compromise in its treatment and delivery, of a type of film that the Brits used to be celebrated for.

Settling into the film, I immediately felt like I was engaged in something that had storytelling depth. There was a self-assured comfort in its pace, like it knew that it didn't need to cut to chase/gun-fight/explosion, because its source material stood up to audience rigor. In my younger years, I remember it was the 'stories' that stood out in 'British Drama' that separated it from 'American rubbish', quoting from the olds of the time. Somewhere in the 'then-to-now' period however, balances shifted and that idea was lost. Luckily, the team behind Tinker, Tailor have rediscovered this notion in an impeccably constructed, and thoroughly complete piece of filmmaking.

What are you up to there Mark?...

It helps to have good actors, and despite British film & tv quality waning over time, the calibre of their actors have not. Here they get the very best of the young and old to enable the espionage caper. First, you have Gary Oldman in a restrained but aptly intense, internalised performance as George Smiley (the retired spy charged with finding the mole in his former team). John Hurt as 'Control' brings in some wild excitement as the head of the former group. Tom Hardy (Bronson, Inception, & Warrior) & Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock (the only good bit of TV the Poms have on air)) are excellent and hold their own alongside the veterans. You also have Mark Strong (who has the most awesome moment in the film with a classroom of school children) and Colin Firth (who has shaken that irritating stammer of his). All in all, it's not a bad bit of casting to call upon.

Director Tomas Alfredson (best known for the original Let the Right One In) also manipulates and controls the suspense well, again not falling ploy to conventions of action and chase, but instead relying on script, composition, complexity and ambiance to manage the effect. Okay, so he's not British but the Queen gives out pardons for that, so easily solved. I also appreciated the way he interluded his fore-story and back-story which can be tricky and curtail momentum... not that its going for pace in the first place but you can still lose an audience all the same, and for me it didn't.

The only thing I might say is even though its class and craft cannot be denied, it might be seen as a little bit of a 'boys only club' film, which I think is refreshing, as for once its not about the consequence of a love interest etc. The female audience may feel a little left out, as they sit there and watch a male type fantasy unfold... but that crap didn't bother me in the slightest, this film was great and I reckon probably my favourite of the year which will be very hard to beat.