Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

It’s actually an absolutely brilliant espionage drama, but you have to watch it second by second, detail by detail. Only at that point that it stands out, and it’s hard to enjoy it when you’re tired from the day’s work and you look forward to sinking into your armchair in the evening, when this movie starts playing. That’s actually what I did and it wasn’t quite right. At times I was passing out from the fatigue while watching and despite the perfect acting performances, I was aware of the fact that it was boring and that the movie dragged. But what drags cannot run away, so there finally came the end which absolutely uplifted the whole movie, because like a proper espionage movie, it managed to surprise me several times. (04/04/2013)

The most sophisticated spy picture of all time. But beneath all the distant sleekness, it is seething. By focusing on "irrelevant" details, Alfredson is able to create a complex storyline that in other films would require long minutes of dialog and an explanatory voice-over monolog. Here, a stubborn silence is maintained, and only rarely a cursory sentence is uttered, seemingly about nothing. And that's the biggest positive (and for many, the biggest negative). If you're on the same page with the film, in the silent scenes where the two Englishmen look at each other over a cup of tea, you'll be on the edge of your seat, covered in sweat, because "you know he knows that him over there knows" and there's no need for it to be mentioned through dialog. If you don’t catch this movie train or if leaves without you then you'll have long minutes waiting for you, watching two Englishmen looking at each other with cups of tea in their hands, and you’ll get nothing out of it. The borderline is thin, but it separates one of the most powerful experiences of recent years from one of the most boring experiences of recent years. So, it is hardly a film for everyone, but at least because of the unusually confident and stylish “70s" directing, it’s worth seeing. Also because it is a prime example of how to adapt a complex and extensive book; it is not a slavish copy nor a mere illustration, but a real adaptation fully transformed into cinematic language. (16/08/2014)

The objective is clear. The British secret service must find and remove a mole who has obviously been giving information to the Soviets. In an ordinary spy thriller, the collection of information and the revelation of new connections would lead to the uncovering of the traitor’s identity. Alfredson’s film essentially adheres to this formula, but the director is more interested in the structure than in superficial genre attractions. Though he doesn’t conceal the answers to pressing questions, he also takes enough time with them that we can recognise that the tension ensuing from the classification and declassification of information will be of secondary importance this time. The current story consists in the reconstruction of what has already happened and because most of what’s important happened in the past, the present sadistically provides no room for action. Because of the identical colour palette and small time scale (the characters don’t age significantly), the scenes “back then” are barely distinguishable from the scenes “now”. The blending of those scenes may be confusing at first, but the essence of espionage consists in the disorienting manipulation of facts, which on a personal level is manifested in the protagonists’ doubts about who they can actually trust. Black-and-white differentiation of villains and heroes doesn’t apply in this monotonously brownish world – with several wonderful WTF?! moments. Everyone pursues their own goals, including Smiley, who rather cynically thanks us for the trust placed in him, when (SPOILER) after the final purge, he accepts a position that will allow him the greatest control over information – nothing will change in the organisation’s non-transparent operation in the long term (END SPOILER). Smiley is indisputably the film’s main protagonist, through whom information is filtered, but the film keeps a similar observational distance from him as it does from the other characters. Many shots are filmed through glass (which is used as a tribute to the classic Rear Window), the characters impudently turn their backs to us, no effort is made to be appealing. The film is not ingratiating, which forces us to watch it more attentively. What’s essential takes place in the background, the mise-en-scéne (including the actors’ faces) reveals more than the dialogue, whose main contribution consists in subtly updating a book written during the Cold War. Some of the allusions to the unequal relationship between the United States and Britain are very contemporary and it would have been appropriate to give more space to them than to the demonisation of the Soviet Union, which here plays the role of a useful bogeyman. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy does not fulfil the requirements of a viewer-friendly film, but viewers who are willing to read between the lines will enjoy it all the more for that. 85% (02/02/2012)

I felt like a redneck in a posh restaurant who orders some incredibly expensive chef’s special and a thousand Euro bottle of wine and then, when they bring it, I lovingly reminisce of a pork schnitzel with a beer at the local pub. An incredibly well made spy drama whose potential to become an immediate modern genre classic is similar to, for instance, last year’s western True Grit, or Tomas Alfredson’s previous film, Let the Right One in. For me, however, it was too slow, with too much dialogue, too one dimensional and too long, which, together with the fact that spy dramas are not my favourite genre, resulted in my being unable to properly appreciate it. I’m sorry, but that’s the fact. (13/01/2012)

The direction is precise, with attention to details, even the unimportant ones when Alfredson is just playing around (a wasp in a car, a killed owl in a classroom), but otherwise the narrative is too distant and not very immersive. Gary Oldman displays an excruciating ease with silent glances and considered speeches, and is the brightest point of the entire film. Of course, there have been better spy plots. (28/01/2012)