/Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011).jpg)
/Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)2.jpg)
/Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)3.jpg)
/Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)4.jpg)
/Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)5.jpg)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
- Director: Tomas Alfredson
- Writer: Bridget O'Connor; Peter Straughan
- Producer: Tim Bevan; Liza Chasin
CGiii Comment
The great British tradition of poofy spies lives on...they are everywhere here.
Painfully slow and dreadfully dark - as in lighting. It may add to the atmosphere but it is just too dark.
Character development is practically non-existent.
The directorial nuances are in every scene - supporting the claim that this is for mature audiences who have to concentrate in order to understand what's going on.
It dithers on the brink of boredom...perking up a little but, alas, not enough...tension would have be a welcome accessory...and then, the resolution comes quicker than a virginal teen.
If this was an improvement on the mini-series then...yes, it justifies the re-make. But, it's not - Oldman's enigmatic portrayal is dull rather than complex...
Alfredson's direction is contrived rather than narrative.
It's not a bad film - it just doesn't compare with the original.
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
In the early 1970s during the Cold War, the head of British Intelligence, Control, resigns after an operation in Budapest, Hungary goes badly wrong. It transpires that Control believed one of four senior figures in the service was in fact a Russian agent - a mole - and the Hungary operation was an attempt to identify which of them it was. Smiley had been forced into retirement by the departure of Control, but is asked by a senior government figure to investigate a story told to him by a rogue agent, Ricky Tarr, that there was a mole. Smiley considers that the failure of the Hungary operation and the continuing success of Operation Witchcraft (an apparent source of significant Soviet intelligence) confirms this, and takes up the task of finding him.
Cast & Characters
Mark Strong as Jim Prideaux;
John Hurt as Control;
Zoltan Mucsi as Magyar;
Peter Kalloy Molnar as Hungarian Waiter;
Ilona Kassai as Woman in Window;
Imre Csuja as KGB Agent;
Gary Oldman as George Smiley;
Toby Jones as Percy Alleline;
David Dencik as Toby Esterhase;
Ciaran Hinds as Roy Bland;
Benedict Cumberbatch as Peter Guillam;
Tom Hardy as Ricki Tarr;
Colin Firth as Bill Haydon;
Kathy Burke as Connie Sachs