Review: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) sometimes feels like a film that is several decades late in arrival and yet simultaneously quite refreshing in challenging the nature of a genre that has become so enamored with action sequences it too often forgets the intricacies of strong narrative structure. In fact one could argue it is an action thriller without any real action scenes, other than a short violent opening and a few sequences that hint at deeper suspense. Instead this Tomas Alfredson directed thriller instead relies most audaciously on a now antiquated form of suspense -- one that sprouts from our own minds.  Following up the success of his startling original 2008 vampire film Let the Right One In, here he demands much from the audience who get much in return for the effort.

The success of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy also relies heavily on an ensemble cast led by the always outstanding Gary Oldman, as forced out spy George Smiley, who is brought out of retirement by Downing Street to hunt down a mole in the highest echelon of the British Secret Intelligence Service ("the circus") after his mentor Control (John Hirt) kills himself in the wake of a failed Hungarian mission to unearth the mole. The narrative then unfolds at a leisurely pace as a combination of flashbacks, document combing and interviews lead us toward the Russian double agent. Among the list of suspects is the charming womanizer Bill Haydon (Colin Firth) who had an affair with Smiley's wife, the dark, mysterious Roy Bland (Ciaran Hinds), the brooding, oily Percy Alleline (Toby Jones) and the largely nondescript Toby Esterhase (David Dencik). We are used to seeing Oldman play bad guys with an unapologetic verve, but here he gives a fascinating and relatively muted performance as the dutiful, perspicacious civil servant combing through the mendacity around him to unearth the truth. The plot requires the full attention of the audience, but a careful eye to detail rewards the viewer with an intriguing plot that begs fundamental questions about human nature, the cold war and really the role of masculinity in politics.

One reason the film does feel a bit dated in its Cold War intrigue is the fact that it is based on a 1974 John Le Care thriller of the same name. But while we might have long passed the days of the East-West chasm, yarns of this nature continue to impress through their intricate character studies and compelling tales of the behind the scenesbattle between communism and capitalism. Like The Russia House (1990) and The Tailor of Panama (2001) before it, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy continues the rather sparse tradition of making cerebral spy thrillers that reward the audience willing to do that most retrograde of things in a movie theatre -- actually think. A