A thriller for adults

Rating: 7/10 (16 August 2012)

In a world of James Bonds and Jason Bournes, George Smiley and his lot are hardly the most outwardly provocative offering in the spy genre, but that is not the game here. The character previously of John Le Carre novels, then television series is a spy for adults. So is this movie.
Everything about Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is measured. Director Tomas Alfredson has painted his film with bleak London scenes and flat 1970s tones. He shoots through the bars of fences and the frames of windows, immediately entrapping us in the dark, claustrophobic world that was the Secret Intelligence Service during the height of the Cold War.
When Control (John Hurt), the head of the ironically referred-to "Circus", is forced to retire in response to an operation gone wrong, he takes his right hand man, George Smiley, with him. We find George (Gary Oldman) a slightly sad man who continues a routine of swimming and leaving his estranged wife's mail on the table, keeping track of the sort of little details a man who has spent his life in the spy trade would come to value. But while he was forced out, he is compelled back into action to pick up the trail of a mole in the organization. As someone on the outside, Smiley is uniquely to look in.
Given an agent, Peter (Benedict Cumberbatch), to assist his investigation, one of the first things Smiley discovers is that an old colleague, Connie, was forced out as well. As they look through photos of the old days, she remembers fondly the old days, before the secrecy and dealings of the cold war.
As Connie seems so keen to do, we bounce back to the past, and from England to Hungary and beyond. Ricki Tarr (Tom Hardy), a young spy who is accused of being a deserter, appears suddenly in George's home with a fantastic story that opens our investigators to another world of treacherous possibilities.
The film is filled with brief scene-setting shots—some mundane, but others filled with detail and plot. The viewer is left trying to put together these sporadic glimmers of story as more involved scenes roll on. The result is an occasionally frenzied attempt at thought in a film otherwise as austere with pace as it is with revelations. And, while these two hours are packed with well-cultivated tension, there is little relief. There are many twists and turns, but very few bring with them as much intensity as may be expected for such a high-stakes game.
The acting is superb from a cast of British elites—most especially Oldman, who is convincing in both his advanced age and quiet desperation. We see that no one is innocent of treason. We watch as friendships, relationships and solemn oaths fall victim to the pursuit of the greater good. And everyone, even the ultimately-revealed mole, believes what they do to be the right thing.
After two hours of restrained acting, music and even colors, the ending comes together laced heavily with scenes of a past holiday party, smiles and laughs and overwhelmingly cheerful music. Resolutions for all and such an upbeat finale seem to break somewhat from the tone and delivery of the bulk of the film. After being snubbed of a true dramatic climax, it seems a bit dishonest.
Walking out of the theater, however, what lingers about Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is the meticulousness of it all: the acting, the attention to detail and the use of metaphoric imagery. Despite this being his first international foray, director Alfredson's confidence shows in every minute. He has created a film that will linger with the viewer long after the credits stop rolling.