Interesting...

Rating: 8/10 (8 February 2018)

TTSS received an extraordinary mixture of reviews from those who positively eulogised over it to those who hated it with a vengeance. I read through most of them, trying to sort out categories.
The whole thing's a bit of an enigma really. Different kinds of people liked or hated it for different reasons but it's certainly a film which produced extreme reactions. It's a love-it or hate-it film. And there are also those who hated it initially and then came over to its side.
I saw it twice at the cinema and the second time around I found it more interesting. I think this is because, having already seen it before, I was ready for the reworking of the story, the location shifts, the 70's decor, and the different characterisation.
I've been around le Carre's novels for many years and know them intimately. The BBC TV version with Alec Guinness was very true to the book and were several other versions including the recent Radio 4 one in its Smiley series.
If one likes this sort of genre those versions imprint themselves on the mind if not the heart. One felt as though one knew Smiley, Guillam, Connie Sachs, and all the rest of the people.
All those previous versions tended to echo one another in their portrayal of the characters so to come to this one, which is in many ways so different, took some adjustment. Much of the original Le Carre dialogue is intact which made the adjustment even trickier. Because I came prepared to the second showing the mind was more free to concentrate, not on the differences, but on the story, the acting, and the essence of the film itself.
On that level it was, as Le Carre himself has said, fairly masterful. The plot is not lost by the time reduction; on the contrary, it's very clear, if one knows it, and the acting was good, as one might expect from that cast.
Oldman dominated the action with surprising presence and power. Not once was he upstaged by any of the others nor by the direction, as sometimes happens. However, I have to say I wasn't convinced. He's not Oxford (he admitted having trouble with the voice) nor an academic, probably the very essence of Smiley who was based on Vivien Green.
For die-hards and connoisseurs like myself one had to accept it was a new version and not a rehash. It is unquestionably different. At times it has an art-house feel which some might think would conflict with the subject of the Cold War. Personally I don't think it did because the mood and tension is largely underlying and psychological, the very stuff of some art-house movies.
Anyhow, as I said, it definitely took some rethinking because I was so steeped in previous versions and the lore of the Smiley novels. The new writers haven't betrayed that lore, they've reformatted it, if that's the right word. It might not sit well with Le Carre purists but it sort of works on its own level. And, as quite a few reviewers have pointed out, they should probably follow it with Smiley's People.
But, to be honest, I can't say I liked it. Le Carre supported and praised it liberally but I happen to know he thinks the Guinness version was the quintessential one. It's possible he was supporting it because there was nothing else to be done.