Based from John le Carre’s 1974 novel of the same title, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is an English film directed by Tomas Alfredson. The film casts Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Toby Jones, John Hurt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ciaran Hinds, Mark Strong and Colin Firth. The movie was co-produced by StudioCanal in France and Working Title Film in Britain.
As expected from espionage films, the movie, set in London in the 1970s, depicts the dilemma of a secret agent from Britain is hunting a double agent from Soviet Union. The movie runs for two hours of suspense, mystery and drama. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy will hit the theaters worldwide on December 9, 2011.
The main protagonist George Smiley, a veteran spy, was forced into an assignment uncovering a double agent from Soviet Union infiltrating M16’s echelons, the Circus. The main character, a disgraced British spy, was all too happy to take on the assignment. But the Cold war is depicting nasty consequences so he needs to serve his country again.
He also have a score to fix as he and his superior Control, was mixed in a failed mission that brought him into an early retirement and Control who was ill, died unsatisfied with the agency’s situation. In the end, after a series of dangerous questioning and investigations, Smiley was able to bring everything out into the open, including the reason behind his failed mission. The spy was caught and Smiley was promoted as the Circus Chief.
7.7 ratings at IMDb, the film received good reviews from its competition premier on Venice International Film Festival. It has been on the Box office in Britain for three weeks. The film is more into the emotional and cleverness of the spy than to the bombings and action gratification most spy film often display. After all this is le Carre’s one of spy signatures, a spy needs to query more than go on hunting the enemies blinded by facts and clues.
But this does not put the action of the hunt less exciting. At the end, the film was intelligently created with a high caliber due to its directorship and the distinguished performances of the British casts.
The film version of the book is visually absorbing and the twists were worth waiting for. Twists are basically the life of a spy story. The unraveling of the questions brought the story from one questioned answered to another question being asked.