The crisp new espionage thriller "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" takes us to 1970s London, right in the middle of the Cold War. The chief of British Intelligence resigns because an operation in Budapest has failed badly.
He's code-named Control (John Hurt). His disgrace spreads to one of his top men, George Smiley (Gary Oldman), who is removed of his duties and sent into forced retirement.
It turns out that Control was convinced that a Russian agent, a "mole," had burrowed himself into "the Circus," which is what Britain's super-secret spy agency MI6 calls its headquarters building.
The mission in Hungary was created in an effort to trap the mole. The possible choices were one of four men, soon to be known in the film as Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. If there was really a spy, which man was it? Some people believe no such double agent exists.
Working from his cluttered home, the desolate Control is still determined to find the mole. Moving along a parallel track, a high government official believes that the goal of the Hungarian operation was on-target and that it was derailed by the double agent. Soon, the aforementioned Mr. Smiley is quietly brought back and assigned to finish the job, to find the traitor.
At stake is a conduit directly into Soviet intelligence centers. Add a rogue agent,Êsomething called Operation Witchcraft, which is a successful mole intrusion of another stripe, and a group of British spies determined to keep their jobs, and you've got a thriller that rivets your attention.
You really need to pay attention during the first half-hour, because the feature's story has real depth to it. I've only scratched the surface of the cat-and-mouse game being played. The world of spies during the Iron Curtain era was a nasty place to be.
The movie is taken from the classic book by John le Carre, one of the best writers of espionage fiction. It runs 127 minutes, but it's gripping, and you shouldn't feel the length.
The elaborate plot explores intelligence agency trickery with seriousness of purpose. Especially exciting is that Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan's screenplay is faithful to the novel. This adherence to an original story rarely happens, and it's refreshing
Tomas Alfredson's outstanding direction is low-key. This is both a pleasure and a relief. He understands that he's made a film about a chess match played with real people, one of whom is destroying MI6 from within. He must be caught. But can he be caught without disrupting other operations and departments in "the Circus"?
What we don't want in a thriller such as this is for its issues to be settled with gunplay. A "Bourne" movie this is not. That's a good thing. This is an engrossing, hugely satisfying film.
Director Alfredson understands duplicity. There's also grand entertainment value to be derived from this relatively serious picture. Alfredson is eager to get you to play the identification game. The clues are in the movie. See it once and guess who the double agent is. See it a second time to realize how everything you needed to know to identify the mole was worked somewhere into the plot.
In addition to Hurt and Oldman, "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" also stars Colin Firth, Thomas Hardy, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kathy Burke, Ciaran Hinds, Mark Strong and Toby Jones. To a person, the cast is exceptional.
Hurt has a wonderful weariness about him. But it's Oldman who truly shines. He underplays beautifully. His Smiley is a man who is underestimated by all. He seems slow and stodgy. But his mind is sharp, his rules are his own, and he's always on the prowl, sensing things that others don't. He could probably see through walls if this were that kind of movie.
"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" asks this question: Can an old-fashioned, and I really meanÊold-fashioned, British spy film succeed in the new world of high-tech moviemaking? The answer is an unequivocal yes.
Good old comic curmudgeon W.C. Fields. He supposedly said that actors should never work with kids or animals.
You just know you'd never get him to join the cast of "We Bought A Zoo," which is nothing but kids and animals. Oh sure, there are adults hanging around the edges, but the failed comedy is really about getting children to cope with the death of a parent. Depressing? It is here. It wasn't so depressing in "The Descendants," but then that's a better movie. Much better.
Matt Damon plays Benjamin Mee, the widowed San Diego father of a precocious girl named Rosie and a surly son named Dylan. Rosie sees goodness in all humanity; therefore, she's intensely annoying. Understandably, she miss her deceased mom. Dylan draws pictures of dead bodies. Without heads. The kid has issues.
Mee thinks that a change is needed. He no longer likes San Diego because, well, you know, it's such a screwed-up place. Really? The beautiful parks, the ocean, the gorgeous weather?
Anyway, he moves his little family to the southern California countryside, but not just any countryside. He manages to find a rundown house that includes its own rundown zoo. Rosie is thrilled. Dylan continues to be a morbid drag on everyone's psyche.
There's not much else to the movie. The zoo comes with its own beautiful caretaker. She's Scarlett Johansson. You know where this is heading, don't you? "We Bought A Zoo" is based on a memoir by the real-life Mr. Mee. In reality, the zoo was in England, where this sort of occurrence seems quirky and charming. In the United States, people don't buy zoos at the drop of a hat, not even to cure children of depression. The offbeat charm is missing here. The setup is strained because Damon overacts, and the picture is drained of spontaneity.
It's weakly directed by Cameron Crowe, and poorly written by Aline Brosh McKenna. Crowe and McKenna try for sentimentality, but everything they deliver is calculated to get an "awww" or to wring some tears from your increasingly droopy eyes.
You feel claustrophobic watching this thing. Like the caged animals.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Jan. 10 2012 |