Rated R for language, violence, adult content and nudity

By Joseph Hunter
BEACON COLUMNIST

posted Jan 27, 2012 - 1:11:45pm

In some soundproof room high up in the British Intelligence archives, a group of weathered, tired-looking men meet secretly, all leery of each other. One of them is a mole, turned by Soviet forces against the backdrop of the Cold War. Everyone is a suspect.

This is espionage: It’s not sexy, it’s not flashy. There are no gadgets, no gizmos, no fast cars or big reveals. MI6 is a very different organization when we’re not squarely focused on James Bond.

Based on a novel by writer John le Carré, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is an intriguing Cold War-era political mystery that seems to star every actor of note from the United Kingdom. It’s a convoluted and sinuous story that never quite presents itself with any definitive clarity. It’s not that director Tomas Alfredson leaves anything up to interpretation, though: The answer is there, and it is concrete. It’s just hidden well.

For the most part, Alfredson helps navigate the story’s tricky terrain with an artist’s vision, and the complexities of the film serve to engage rather than alienate the audience. But the pacing does have its flaws, which are likely the product of scriptwriters Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan adapting the 400-page book to fit two hours of screen time. We see long stretches of men talking with no apparent action happening, which at first serves well to build tension—if one of them might be a spy, what could they talk about of substance?—but eventually gets tedious.

Each character has his own story, his own identity. This is due in no small part to a host of excellent, subtle performances by seemingly every actor worth his salt in the United Kingdom. Colin Firth, Gary Oldman, Mark Strong, John Hurt, Toby Jones and Benedict Cumberbatch combine to form one of the greatest casts in recent memory, at least in terms of collective talent. The only problem is so much plot and character development are packed so densely in this film that it feels like the talent is wasted—save for Oldman’s character, everyone else is relegated to supporting roles that seem too minor for their distinguished careers. In the cinema world, this is what we call one of those “good problems.”

It is a good thing the acting is so solid, because Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is very much a character-driven film. Not to call the movie boring—it is never boring—but its pacing is slow, one might say methodical, and its action is sparse.

There are long stretches in which nothing of note seems to happen, although we find out later nearly everything in the film, right down to subtle glances across holiday party crowds, was a piece of the puzzle. When the action picks up, it is brief and (we imagine) realistic, a few people being unceremoniously gunned down as the situation dictates with no buildup, no monologue, no last stand. There are a few haunting images, but mostly because of implication. There is really only one gruesome moment, and the camera lingers maybe 15 seconds before cutting to a brighter scene.

It’s difficult to qualify why Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy works so well, but the fact is it’s greater than the sum of its parts. The camerawork is clever, every angle meaningful, no shot wasted; the acting and directing are phenomenal. But it’s better than that. For such an intense, talk-heavy political drama (not thriller, as many spy movies would claim to be), it leaves a good impression. This is not only a film worth multiple viewings, but one I suspect would get better a second or third time around. That’s a rare impression for a dense drama to leave.

Stars & Popcorn grade: 5 stars, 3 popcorn

— Hunter serves as editor-in-chief for movie-review website Stars and Popcorn. To learn more about Stars and Popcorn, visit www.starsandpopcorn.com. Send e-mail to Hunter at joseph@starsandpopcorn.com

Sponsored by Liebe Entertainment Group, Marketplace 8. Click here to see showtimes for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

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