This week's selection for Redbox pick of the week is the spy film "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy."
I have long wondered why spy movies aren't more confusing. You would think that a narrative built around the secretive life of a spy would be equally as multifaceted as their careers. "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" represents this notion, weaving a complex story around a terrific cast of actors.
The story picks up with a retired spy named George Smiley (Gary Oldman) who is told by an intelligence official named Oliver Lacon (Simon McBurney) that there is a mole in their midst. What follows is a labyrinth of a mystery as Smiley tries to uncover who exactly is the mole in the Circus, as the British Spy Agency is known in the film.
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The movie is based on the 1974 novel written by John le Carr+â-¬. Considering Carr+â-¬ was a spy himself, the plot feels very authentic. There are no tense car chases here. Instead the movie is filled with tense scenes of men sitting in claustrophobically tight spaces, with every move as calculated as in a game of chess.
The overall sense of dread and uncertainty is established well from the outset, as the man known as Control (John Hurt) assigns Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong) to try to find the potential mole in Budapest. The assignment goes horribly wrong and Prideaux is shot, forcing Control and Smiley into retirement and a new group takes over the Circus. Thus Smiley's eventual mission is set, as he now has to try and find the elusive mole.
In a day and age where we deal with all kinds of issues of privacy and intelligence, this film also feels very timely. One only needs to look back and remember the "weapons of mass destruction" debacle to see where the allegory in this film lies and how its message still rings true.
The aesthetic work here is phenomenal. Every scene is filled with lush, textured colors that are very aesthetically pleasing. Cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema deserves at least an Oscar nomination for his incredible photography. Production designer Maria Djurkovic also deserves recognition for her great construction of every scene.
The cast is exceptional. Oldman leads the way with his Academy-nominated performance as Smiley. He plays his part so cool that the very frame seems to chill over. I could imagine very few other actors who could handle a plot this dense and still hold the audience well. Colin Firth, as Bill Haydon, and Strong each provide solid supporting roles.
The true scene-stealer, however, is Tom Hardy as Ricki Tarr. Hardy is white-hot in the film world right now, and here he provides a spark at about the midway point of the film. Hardy's character is so sneaky yet so honest that it provides a unique element just when the plot begins to get a little mundane.
One issue with "Tinker Tailor" is how easy it is to get lost. A lot of the reason I was so impressed with the complexity of the plot is it didn't stop to explain much, so I assumed a lot of the action was happening before us, leaving the audience to decipher the larger puzzle.
I feel that "Tinker Tailor" is a movie that needs to be seen at least twice to nail down everything in the plot. You certainly leave the film with a sense of closure, but to appreciate exactly how everything fits together you need to be paying very close attention.
"Tinker Tailor" represents a very different kind of spy movie; in an age where most are driven by action, it is cerebral. This is a film that should be celebrated for taking the risk of presenting us with a narrative that we need to engage in, rather than be pumped full of disconnecting action sequences.
There is a moment that still resonates with me - when Smiley is recounting a memory of meeting a Soviet spy and the conversation they had. At one point the spy says to Smiley, "We aren't so different you and I. We're both merely looking for the weaknesses in each other's systems. Don't you think it's time you've acknowledged that there's as little worth in your side as there is in mine?"
This is where the commentary of the film cuts the sharpest, where we see that "Tinker Tailor" refuses to see its world in anything but muddled shades of gray. In today's worldwide cultural landscape where there is equal uncertainty, I think this message is as timely as ever.
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Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy receives an 8.5/10
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