Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

This, the new adaptation of Le Carré’s most well-known novel, is already becoming tipped for Oscar greatness – making me think there’s soon to be a backlash against worthy, slow-paced British films with Colin Firth in them. Made by Canal+ and Working Title, it is a slow, twisting adaptation that demands the full attention of viewers not already familiar with the story.

When an intelligence mission goes badly wrong, there is a change in the top brass at MI6. However, George Smiley, who had been forced to retire over the failed mission, is brought back to investigate the mole suspected of rumbling the plot. He and a younger agent must discreetly investigate the elite of the secret service, and find out who is leaking secrets to the Russians. The final trap is…as simple as it gets, really, and I felt the film might have been better-structured with more investigation into individuals rather than meandering and philosophising until finally you learn where to catch the crooked agents exchanging their information, but it rounded things off well and the final revenge is oddly both rewarding and saddening.

The film’s main problem is that it is very, very ponderous. There are a lot of little moments of character interaction that only much later seem significant, if at all. There are extended flashback scenes that just don’t seem very necessary. And the music could really have helped keep momentum were it not so sparse. But these things don’t get in the way of a very tense, intriguing and involving story, superbly acted by a cast of well-known faces who help differentiate the large cast of significant characters. Oldman was excellent, though looking oddly like Paul Whitehouse doing his Michael Paine character, a fact not helped by Kathy Burke’s presence on the cast. It’s great to see Toby Jones becoming quite the character-actor star, and John Hurt has a simple, understated gravitas. I don’t watch Sherlock, but Cumberbatch is certainly compelling on the screen, and I suspect that like the TV series that was such a hit a few decades ago, this film will be remembered for excellent performances.