Movie review: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Directed by Thomas Alfredson
Screenplay: Bridget O'Connor, Peter Straughan
Cast:
George Smiley: Gary Oldman
Bill Haydon: Colin Firth
Jim Prideaux: Mark Strong
Control: John Hurt
Roy Bland: Ciarán Hinds
Peter Guillam: Benedict Cumberbatch
MPAA rating: R (for violence, some sexuality/nudity and language)

Release year: 2011

Synopsis:

For any secret intelligence service there is nothing worse than a mole or a ‘rotten apple’among their agents. This is a story based on a novel by John le Carre, telling how the British MI5 dealt with that particular problem – I reviewed the book not so long ago so more details you can find following this link. If you think “Tinker, Tailor” rings true you are perfectly right – it is partly based on the case of Kim Philby, one of a handful of British spies and Cambridge University alumni who were recruited by the Soviets in the 1930s. (Mr. le Carré, born David John Moore Cornwell, was a British spy whose cover was blown exactly by Philby so he did know what he was writing about.)

My impressions:

It is a spy movie but if you think immediately ‘action, fireworks, chases and James Bond’ you got hold of the wrong end of the stick and the film most likely will bore you. The plot is sluggish and it meanders to and fro, telling at least three different stories; the agents, no matter nice or ugly, young or elderly, are embittered by their lonely and not especially satisfying or glorious career. There are no reall friends in this business, just enemies you know and enemies you don’t know. Their Soviet intelligence counterparts seem to be elusive to say the least of it and as badly off as themselves.

When you are an agent you aren’t given some fast, rocket-propelled cars equipped with machine guns, no special watches with laser beams ; there are no beautiful girls falling for you at every party , just day-to-day drudgery, filling endless reports and infighting, stopped from time to time by a nasty accident or death of somebody you knew. Definitely closer to real life than any James Bond movie has ever dared to come but definitely neither cheerful nor exciting. There was one or two funny scenes, like Christmas at MI5 headquarters (a red Christmas tree, a Santa dressed up as Lenin, the guests singing merrily the Russian national anthem instead of a Christmas carol – who would guess these were British agents and their wives having Yule fun?) but the smile immediately gets wiped off by the prevalent atmosphere of sadness and glum (e.g. at that very Christmas party Smiley finds out by accident that his wife is cheating on him with his colleague). In fact it is my only carping – this movie was so depressing at times that it took me three evenings to get to the very end. The end was also a proper mixture of successes and failures (like 20/80 I would say)- some people get the sack, some get killed, some are promoted but you don’t feel like cheering, not really.

Uncharacteristically, after reading a book I actually wanted to watch the movie as well – mainly because of the actors. Gary Oldman as Smiley, John Hurt as Control, Collin Firth as Bill Haydon (Darcy!) Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock!) as Peter Guillam… honestly, with all these gentlemen playing side by side I expected a lot because really, could you ask for a better cast? Ok, maybe one or two strong female characters would be a nice addition but still I wasn’t disappointed – the performance of Oldman was great, one of the best I’ve seen since him playing the part of Sirius Black in The Prisoner of Azkaban (a Harry Potter movie). Smiley doesn’t say a word until 18 minutes in (“I’m retired”) but believe me, he doesn’t have to. His lined, sad, lean face speaks volumes about the life he’s been leading.

Despite that brutality, “Tinker, Tailor” is suffused with feelings — love for a country, a cause, a woman — a theme that surfaces especially at a boys’ school where Prideaux is hiding and which mirrors both the big boys’ club that is the Circus. At the school Prideaux meets a lonely student, Bill Roach (William Haddock), a moon-faced outsider whom Prideaux calls “a good watcher,” a description that, given the sadness that cloaks the story’s many watchers, feels chilling. ‘Chilling’ would be a good description of the whole movie when I come to think about it.

Final verdict:

A very good movie for a quiet evening, with splendid acting which I really enjoyed but, unfortunately, not something that would boost your mood. If you want to watch a lot of action and pretty girls in fast sports cars it is the wrong type of movie. Also if you hate cold war era spying stories you should steer clear of it.

Review: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy by John le Carre

Book info:

Book form: e-pub file

Genre: spy thriller with some philosophy

Target audience: adults

A quote to give you some idea what you are dealing with:

“'It is the perfect fix: you see that, don't you, Toby, really?' Smiley remarked in a quiet, rather distant way. 'Assuming it is a fix. It makes everyone wrong who's right: Connie Sachs, Jerry Westerby... Jim Prideaux... even Control. Silences the doubters before they've even spoken out... the permutations are infinite, once you've brought off the basic lie. Moscow Centre must be allowed to think she has an important Circus source; Whitehall on no account must get wind of the same notion. Take it to its logical conclusion and Gerald would have us strangling our own children in their beds.”

Not understanding anything? Don’t worry, you are in a good company…

Synopsis:

This is the first book of the Karla Trilogy by former British intelligence officer "John le Carre'" (David John Moore Cornwell), featuring the ex-spy George Smiley. At first glance he is your average older guy who simply doesn’t know what to do with his retirement. Smiley has not retired with dignity, mind you, but rather has been fired for backing the wrong man. The head of MI5, called simply Circus, a spy so elusive that people only knew him as "Control," went out in a blaze of tragedy, and Smiley's career was one of the casualties. The same things happen all the time in every bigger company. Control was trying to find a mole. He failed and the Circus has been reorganized. So who watches the watchmen? Somebody has to. George Smiley seems to fit the bill as he has nothing to lose, doesn’t he?

All of a sudden he is given a pretext to return - he is asked to investigate the identity of the “mole” . He is helped by Peter Guillam, an active spy and, as we follow those two we learn a lot about the MI5 history and inner workings. It is a world of lies, scandals, espionage, double or even triple agents but hardly a glamorized fairy tale James Bond style. Mistrust and paranoia is as natural as snow in the Arctic, office politics are indistinguishable from international espionage and even your closest friend might prove to be your deadliest enemy. And vice versa. I really don’t feel like presenting all the twists and turns of the plot – just rest assure the book is densely twisted and consists of many puzzles – see the quote above.

What I liked:

The book was very original indeed – however you must know that Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is not a novel for fans of the real literature of action. Instead, this is a book for people interested in less known but far more accurate facts concerning the spying job - a job like many other dirty, dangerous and difficult occupations, just with a higher risk factor.

As far as spies go, George Smiley is very far removed from James Bond and Jason Bourne. He is an averagely looking man past his prime and his glamorous wife, Ann, has cheated on him many times (guess why. I liked this description of him:

“For a space, that was how Smiley stood: a fat, barefooted spy, as Ann would say, deceived in love and impotent in hate, clutching a gun in one hand, a bit of string in the other, as he waited in the darkness.”

It’s true, George Smiley is not even jealous or complaining a lot anymore – after all you shouldn’t demand too much from people. We're invited to consider what's going on inside his head -- and he's still a master spy who knows pretty well that you can buy or ‘seduce’ anyone, it’s only a matter of using the right leverage. Sometimes you fail but if you are good at it you will be successful most of the time.

After a while I thought that the world of spies and secret agents was merely an excuse for an unsparing examination of human betrayal in its many forms. Romantic, marital, parental, institutional and governmental structures all corrode from the vanity and ambition of the protagonists. Friendship is not possible as characters tenuously holding on to their probity are the ones most used and discarded. A bleak world, fit for times when everything seems relative.

It also seems to me this book was written to be a counter point to the James Bond films. Instead of rocket packs and laser wrist watches, it is a realistic portrayal of espionage as a business conducted mainly by middle aged bureaucrats in dusty ministry offices. The tone is melancholic and philosophical – it is not your ordinary “spy thriller” for sure.

Finally the character of Jim Prideaux I found very nicely constructed and quite intriguing, though his inner life, contrary to that of Smiley’s, remains a mystery and yes, he and Ann cheated on poor George as well.

What I didn’t like:

I can be considered shallow now but there were places in this book which made me annoyed. It is simple, from time to time I wanted some action – you know, these car chases, sword-play, karate, parachute-jumping,  maybe some poison or such. In other words, I wanted a story that actually had a certain aim – going there, destroying this or killing that. I waited in vain - it is simply not that book. You should read it as if you tried to solve a puzzle, in peace and quiet, not hurrying to the finish. Sometimes I admit I lacked the necessary patience – I kept forgetting who plays what role and who cooperates with whom against the evil mole. A bit disconcerting, don’t you think? Oh well…still it is a minor quibble.

Final verdict:

Definitely a novel worth your attention but a) if you expect a real thriller you might be disappointed; b) if you think it qualifies as entertaining “light reading” e.g. for a day on a beach or a long journey think again; c) if you don’t like solving complex puzzles while reading you might find the plot hard to follow. Still it rings true and that fact is worth far more than James Bond’s fireworks or Jason Bourne’s kicks.