Review: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

We don’t normally go to the movies, I’ll just state that from the outset. The choice’s are usually pretty lacklustre and the seats aren’t as comfortable as laying back on your own lounge, and as a smoker, my fiance hates having to choose between watching the movie or having a cigarette mid way through. Also, your average cinema doesn’t allow you to take a beer or a glass of wine into the cinema to watch the movie. I’m not saying I can’t watch a movie without an alcoholic beverage, but I do enjoy relaxing in front a movie with a nice glass of wine in the evening. So, when my fiance was given vouchers to Gold Class + Food Vouchers we weren’t stuck on what we’d go see to round off the experience.

After seeing the teaser for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy months ago on YouTube we’d been anxiously waiting for the movie to hit our shores…. that day finally came yesterday the 19th of January. I had managed to book tickets to the opening night how in Gold Class. Opening Night, Gold Class for a movie we’d both been wanting to see for months…. Expectations were high!

Why the anticipation? Have I read any of the George Smiley novels by John Le Carre? Have I seen the original series? No and No, but when I saw the trailer and saw the cast members and the fact that it’s a SPY film (one of my favourite genre’s ever…especially British Spies…yes I’m a Bond and Spooks tragic)…. Gary Oldman (Dracula, Basquiat), John Hurt (V for Vendetta), Colin Firth(ummm….Mr Darcy!!!!), Benedict Cumberbatch (The Last Enemy), Kathy Burke (Gimme, Gimme, Gimme), Stephen Graham (This is England, Snatch), Simon McBurney (I swear I’ve seen him somewhere before!)…. it’s like the best actors in Britain got together and made a movie…which, they did!

The plot is pretty straightforward, it’s the 1970′s, the Circus (MI6?) has a mole at the very top of it, feeding secrets to the Russians in the middle of Cold War Europe. Control (Hurt) has suspected as much for years, but after a failed operation in Budapest is forced out of the Circus along with his top man George Smiley (Oldman). Smiley is then approached by persons in power to find the mole from outside of the Circus. There are so many subtleties in filming this story, little visual clues that are not placed in the centre of the screen and spoon fed to the audience, I believe there are many things I have missed this viewing. The cinematography is brilliant, dark, moody and evocative of cold war era spy antics in london, the decor is a cross between gawdy 70′s futuristic orange and classic english antique. Special mention must be made of George Smiley’s ride…. a delicious golden ‘Goddess’ Citroen DS, which glides through the movie beautifully.

What I love about this is film is it’s slow burn, but as an audience you need to think to keep up with the story, it’s not spoon-fed with action packed gun-fights and gadgets and car chases. It has it’s moments of humour (Kathy Burke motioning to a young couple in a university lounge and saying “I dont know about you George, but I feel decidedly under-fucked”), it has wonderful scenery (Istanbul, Budapest, London), the cast are believable, good actor’s, not just conventional or plastic beauty, but real, aged, wrinkly, blotchy, bald, grey haired and bespectacled. Sure there are a fair share of beautiful women and good looking men in it too….but they’re not the heroes.

If you’re a fan of spy films, you’re sick of the tired films spewing forth from Hollywood like diahorrea after food poisoning…. you like thinking for yourself, you need to see this film. Even if you’re just a fan of Gary Oldman or Colin Firth….you need to see this film. It’s fantastic. It’s so fantastic David Stratton gave it 5 stars, a perfect score, on the Movie show.

Incidentally, it does help seeing it from the comfort of a reclining chair with a few glasses of wine and a big bag of popcorn and glass of maltesers…. or equally appealing was the cheese platter on offer on the Gold Class menu. Not to advertise for Village Cinemas for free, but I think that is now my favourite way to go to the cinema…. expensive when you’re paying for it, but wonderful.

Related articles

• Movie Review: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (moviefail.wordpress.com)
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is excellent! But, may not be everyone’s cup of tea… (nediunedited.wordpress.com)
• Gary Oldman on ‘Tinker’s’ George Smiley (seattletimes.nwsource.com)