Saw the Tinker, Tailor, Solder, Spy movie yesterday at River East 21...the adaptation of the John le Carré spy thriller by Swedish director Tomas Alfredson. In the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced from retirement to uncover a Soviet agent at the very top of MI6. The performance of Gary Oldman as George Smiley is amazing. He captures the complexity and quietly seething intensity of Smiley....that feeling of a man alone in a treacherous world and a disillusioned romantic. Hard to believe this actor has never been nominated for an Oscar. I loved the melancholy sepia tones of the cinematography and the early 70s backdrop was stylized to perfection. There is a menacing atmosphere of Cold War era anxiety and paranoia that kept me on the edge of my seat. This is the dreary bureaucratic world of espionage rather than the glossy James Bond version...the hero is a rather anonymous bureaucrat who blends into the background whilst watching and listening.
Peter Bradshaw, film critic of The Guardian, described it thus: "This Tinker Tailor is a weightless, slo-mo nightmare taking place in what looks like an aquarium filled with poison gas instead of water: I found it more gripping and involving than any crash-bang action picture, and it is anchored by Gary Oldman's tragic mandarin, a variation on Alec Guinness which transfers the emphasis away from George Smiley's wounded feelings to his cool capacity for unconcern in the face of violence, a hint of a daredevil past, long mummified by bureaucratic self-control and a schoolmasterly scorn for his victim's weakness and disloyalty, while seeing how easily any agent could give the wretched Judas kiss. What a treat this film is, and what an unexpected thrill."
Here is video clip with Gary Oldman discussing his role as Smiley:
Now I'd like to see the 1979 TV version with Alec Guinness as Smiley :
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