Tinker Tailor Soldier Snore

Rating: 3/10 (31 January 2012)

More like "Tinker Tailor Soldier Snore." Tomas Alfredson's big screen interpretation of John le Carre's spy novel may have won over many critics, and now the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, but it certainly didn't impress me.
I would try to tell you what the film is about, but seriously, I had little idea what I saw until I got home and re-read the plot on Wikipedia...and even then, it wasn't terribly clear. But it is about an ex-Secret Service guy, played by Gary Oldman, who is looking for a mole in the higher ranks of the British Secret Service.
Loads of things happen in this film, and I guess it was just done in a way that went so completely over my head, I spent the entire film just barely understanding what I was watching. It was like they condensed an entire season of a television series into a two hour movie, making it virtually impossible to follow. To understand it properly, I would have to watch it again.
And believe me, that is not going to happen.
The way Anderson directed it is well done in some ways, but with frame after frame of a backdrop so dreary, it makes London look suicide-inducing, the film plugs along without having any redeemable features that will truly grab your interest and keep you entertained. When someone gets shot in the head, you think finally! Some action! And then it sinks back into the greys and far too many words and names to keep track of.
I think the only reason why the script got an Oscar nomination was that it may have been the thickest of them all, because it certainly was not written well enough for the average human to keep up with the story and keep one terribly interested. A nomination for the score? Sorry, nothing impressive there either. It was as long and drawn out as the film was.
And then there is the Best Actor nomination for Gary Oldman. I would understand it if he were old enough to maybe not get another one, but out of all the performances I have seen this year, this one certainly did not stand out as deserving such a recognition. Yep, there could have easily been a spot there for a more deserving Gosling.
Yep, after sitting through this overly complicated bore of a film, not only did my head hurt, but so did my wallet.