Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

What have men like George Smiley been doing since the end of the Cold War? Secret agents who live in the shadows, meeting informants in cafes or within the inner sanctums of a safe house, nudging, prodding, threatening for another piece of intelligence about the Soviets. Yes, of course the spy game is still thriving post-Cold War, post-9/11, necessary as it is to be cloaked to tease out what is vital amidst a sea of deception and noise. But during the days of the U.S.S.R./C.C.C.P., every teleptype threatened to reveal something that may suggest a fatal infiltration, a paper trail of espionage, or, perhaps worst of all for the British, egg on face.

It all made great fodder for novelists like John le Carré, whose Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was a bestseller in the mid-1970s. British intel agent Smiley would go on to have several more adventures in print and a celebrated BBC adaptation in 1979 with Sir Laurence Olivier in the lead role. Swedish director Tomas Alfredson has followed in 2011 with a movie of the same name, penned by the late Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan. Those familiar with the story will cite its complexity, the labyrinthine manner in which to tell of what amounts to something rather fundamental and common to the spy genre: the presence of a "mole" within the ranks.

The "Circus" is the apt nickname for the MI6 British Intelligence agency, run by a Chief called Control (John Hurt). His behavior is erractic, but do not discount his clarity - he knows there is a traitor at his table. Of his employ, he suspects Percy Alleline (Toby Jones), Bill Haydon (Colin Firth), Roy Bland (Ciarán Hinds), Toby Esterhase (Bernard Hepton), and Smiley (Gary Oldman). Respectively, each is coded "Tinker", "Tailor", "Soldier", "Poorman" and "Beggarman." Tellingly, the Chief scotch tapes photos of each to pieces on his chess board.

After a badly botched meeting with a Hungarian general during which an MI6 agent is shot and later tortured, Smiley and Control are ousted, leaving Alleline to take the reigns and continue building their file on Soviet doings, a file known as "Witchcraft". Some time later, Smiley is recruited out of premature retirement to conduct his own investigation as to the identity of the Soviet mole, surely one of his former inner circle. He will visit several former Circus employees and begin to slowly assemble the puzzle. Periodically, a holiday party/dance from years earlier with all of the story's principals in attendance will be revisited in this movie, each time revealing more about the relationships among them.

Much of TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY stays fixed on Oldman's face, a face usually deep in thought. Eyes averted. He is an expert at his job, and seemingly more intuitive and cautious than his cohorts. His silences say more than his few words. It is an opportunity for some subtly effective acting by Oldman, but also bad news for viewers who are trying to keep up with this sometimes inpenetrable plot. Smiley betrays nothing, especially not to the viewer who may often feel as if stumbling in a fog.

The litany of intel jargon (including the term "lamplighter") doesn't help. Sometimes I felt like a glossary would've been useful, much like Anthony Burgess provided for readers of A Clockwork Orange. But Alfredson, like Kubrick long before him, does us no such favors. But to everyone's credit, this film never doubts the intelligence of the viewer, and rewards the patient and observant.

But do not let your attention lapse, not even for 30 seconds. I rarely criticize screenplays for films about spies for being too involved, because that is the very nature of them. Even James Bond movies have plots that can get impossibly twisty. For a quiet film like TINKER TAILOR, the complexity is more noticeable, often infuriating for some viewers. Many would probably have also appreciated if ushers had handed out Cliffs Notes and flashlights with this picture, based on some of the reviews and postings I've seen. Should one feel like an idiot if he or she doesn't follow the intracacies of the plot? Or is it the failing of the screenwriters who have not made things clear? An age old question for film, one that this film does little to definitively answer.

I was fascinated from beginning to end, even during some of the film's lulls. There is much symbolism. Some of it is a bit clumsy - such as the repeated shots of Smiley wading through deep water, with his glasses on, of course. Hmmmm. The railroad lights and switching tracks were also a bit too obvious for my taste.

I began watching this movie with a bit of condescension: these men are just boys in adult bodies, having never outgrown the cloak and dagger games of schoolyard recess. If you really examine the job description of an agent, it reveals opportunities to retreat into base, even infantile behavior, all in some covert guise to retrieve information that will prevent some disaster from happening. I'm not trivializing the importance of the work itself, please understand. And yes, such roles are necessary for national security and all that, but examine the lengths and especially depths taken to achieve this. TINKER TAILOR therefore becomes just as interesting for its sociology as its plotting. In the end these otherwise sophisticated individuals are reduced to gossipy, vindictive, spineless nellies, no better than a group of catty high school girls or yentas at a canasta table. There is, of course, a bit more at stake with the MI6, CIA, KGB, etc. etc. That's what is so sad and frightening.

The best thrillers of this genre do just that, show the spy business for the (intriguing) mess that it is. Without being flashy in even the slightest way, TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY somberly, delibrately unfolds (if not shines some light upon) its enigmas. What most impressed me was how the film looked and was shot. Drab colors, slow transitions among scenes, camerawork and direction appropriate to a story set in 1973. Many films set in earlier times lose me because they use contemporary cinematic tools that destroy the feel. Alfredson and crew have made a movie that really looks as if it were nearly 40 years old. It is almost if they found old film stock from the period. This is the correct method. It sustained my occasional dips in interest. Drink it in, and pay close attention.