Stinker, Tailor, Soldier...

Rating: 6/10 (24 January 2012)

Maybe it's because I'm a part-Swedish native English speaker--or maybe Tomas Alfredson's Nordically glacial and dull TTSS-2011 misses the mark on a more straightforward level, but Alfredson's cluelessness of the subtleties and entendres of spoken English weigh especially heavy on this film.
TTSS is a decidedly British period piece whodunit with a labyrinthine back story and subtext. In order to enjoy and admire such a work (and be interested in each character), the English dialogue and included idiom and colloquialisms *ARE CENTRAL* to the film as plot points and character raison d'etre. The most important and satisfying elements of the piece lie in its character's use of British vernacular and slang (some Brit spy stuff included), and its dialectical delivery.
Le Carre(Novel) and Hopcraft/Irvin (BBC version) got it right, but it's all missing as O'Connor/Straughan, the writers, and the forgivably Swedish Alfredson have "thrown out the baby with the bathwater" in condensing this work to a 127 minute film. None of the characters appear to have much to say at all, with the vacuous staring going on, but when they do speak, we get a foreshortened and 2 dimensional view of their motives and place in the plot; As dull and plodding as a real British spy's life could be in the '70s cold war, we need to be interested and entertained by the peculiarities and persona of each character in a film, and with the exception of the fine performance by Tom Hardy, as Ricki Tarr, most of the cast play as gray and flat as the film comes off in whole.
I LOVED the book & '79 BBC version, and lived in London in 1973, so this film should have impressed and satisfied, as much as I would have liked it too upon hearing of the upcoming release in early 2011 - Only it didn't...Other reviewers have praised and extolled the direction, the script, the acting, the musical score, and the photography; And I certainly respect the actors' work in this most subtle and (on the surface) potentially confusing story. But after viewing this film 5 times, I am left loathing a sixth screening.