I didn't like it--too one-note--not like the book at all--a "Bromance"?

Rating: 3/10 (4 April 2012)

I like art films, and I like original movies. And slow films too. I loved TREE OF LIFE-- a very unusual, original movie, and a heartfelt one. But I did not like this re-booting of "Tinker Tailor". Admittedly, I read the novel years ago, and then watched the TV series with Alec Guinness, which I enjoyed--even though it had to compress a bunch of the subtler stuff from the book.
But THIS version of "TTSS" I did not like--for lots of reasons--the insistence on dreary sets and muted colors--after a while, wasn't it laid on a bit thick? I mean--no contrast to anything else--just hitting us over the head with "DREARY"--they'd made their point! Also, the main character actors--all chosen or made up to have very strange, unattractive-looking faces and weird-shaped heads. Even the Bill (mole) character has this greasy hair and dowdy clothes--not something emphasized in the book.
But mostly they changed the PLOT from the book and from the first Alec Guinness adaptation. --Instead of being a spy-thriller/detective story with plot resolution--the exposure of the Mole and more important, the SURRENDER of CARLA to the Smiley character, the director turns this movie into a smarmy "Bromance" about dumped gay lovers and betrayal of male relationships. And this is presented in very soapy fashion. It's like go from Le Carre to Dougls Sirk! And the film completely leaves out the story of CARLA's daughter and how Smiley discovers this master spy's one vulnerability--his concern for his daughter, and how this ultimately trumps his allegiance to the Soviet State and to his spy craft. NONE of this is in the current movie! Instead of CARLA being vanquished by Smiley's dogged intelligence and patience by the end of the film, we get the unexplained and rather hurried capture of Bill with his handler in the Safe House apartment (we aren't really told how exactly Bill is cornered--we just show that he is). And Smiley's rehiring and promotion as head of MI6.
The whole subplot of Smiley's wife Ann is mostly told off-screen, (and thus we do not see how Smiley's vulnerability to Ann mirrors CARLA's vulnerability for his own daughter)--And the Ann actress and character herself never appear in the film. --Except for a shot of her very clothed rear end at a Christmas party. Even the killing of the traitor at the end is changed from the book and soaped-up with tears, to make a different emphasis in the story.
Is this meant to be a "Gay" film? --I don't know. But it's not Le Carre's novel! It's like the director or the screenwriter read the book and could only relate to certain parts of it and then added other stuff more to their own taste.
And--here's a really unpopular opinion from me:--I thought Gary Oldman's performance was more wooden than expressive or exhausted. The longer I saw his face the more I thought how thick his makeup seemed to be. Alec Guinness was not made up with rubber prosthetics for his movie! And at the end of the film the Smiley character is sitting at the "Boss's"desk --formerly occupied by Control--smiling in triumph and satisfaction, as if he's vanquished his enemies at the office and become "the winner" over the other guys. --This again is hardly the point that Le Carre made in his novel, or about the Cold War, or about spies! Perhaps this should be a scene for the Dwight character from "The Office" TV show.