Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Winter 2012 Features series
Sunday, March 11, 2012 at 4:00pm
Sunday, March 11, 2012 at 7:00pm
Acadia Cinema's Al Whittle Theatre
450 Main Street, Wolfville, NS
Directed by Tomas Alfredson
Screenplay by Peter Straughan
Based on the book by John Le Carré
Starring Tom Hardy, Colin Firth, Gary Oldman, and Benedict Cumberbatch
Rated 14A ·
2h 7m
Germany / United Kingdom / France
English
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Adapted from John le Carré’s classic Cold War spy novel, and starring a who’s who of British acting talent, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a fascinating look at the disenchanted world of espionage and treachery. Unglamorous but certainly not unexciting, the film is the anti-James Bond where gadgets and girls are replaced with drab duds and anonymous office space, cool colours and muted emotions.
Having been dismissed from the Secret Intelligence Service, George Smiley (Gary Oldman, The Dark Knight) is brought back into the fold when former head of MI6, Control (John Hurt, Brighton Rock), asks him to smoke out a mole who is leaking secrets to the Soviets. The suspects are all at the top level, collectively known as “The Circus”. Who is the guilty man? Take your pick from Toby Jones (Creation), Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, A Single Man), Ciaran Hinds (There Will Be Blood), and David Dencik (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), who meet around a table every so often to exchange hard looks and nasty quips. The fifth suspect, of course, is Smiley himself.
Preserving the murky atmosphere of mistrust and cynical insecurity of the novel, director Tomas Alfredson impressively recreates early 1970s London. The London shown here is a cold, damp-looking place, scrupulously shot by Alfredson in a restricted palette of subdued greys and browns. Aided by superb production design, a satisfyingly intelligent script, and a crack ensemble cast that also includes Mark Strong (The Guard) and younger actors such as Tom Hardy (Inception) and Benedict Cumberbatch (The Whistleblower), Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is not only a stunningly good old-fashioned spy yarn, but a surefire classic.