Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Review

It is the early 1970s and spies are everywhere. After MI6 field agent Jim Prideaux (Strong) attempts to gain information pertaining to a mole in the agency, the meeting does not go well and bullets wind up flying. This failure leads to the leader, dubbed ‘Control,’ (Hurt) to be forced into retirement, as well as his high up deputy George Smiley (Oldman).

The agency’s leadership reshuffles, with a new Chief Sir Percy Alleline (Jones) stepping up into a top role, along with some other players Bill Haydon (Firth) as Smiley’s replacement in deputy, and Roy Bland and Toby Esterhase (Dencik) as lieutenants. The new leadership runs intelligence how they see fit, until this mole resurfaces.

As another field agent surfaces, Ricky Tarr (Hardy), it is clear there is more going on than meets the eye. Tarr has been ducking death threats and obtaining information. Nothing is what it seems as Smiley heads back into the fray, looking for connections and wanting to flush out the rat.

Tinker Tailor Solider Spy is a smart and complicated mystery, full of spy paranoia, double crosses, and nefarious enemy forces. While a slow burner, the story is packed to the gills with information, motivation and intrigue. Plenty of shots are purposefully told through minimal dialogue, and include onscreen observations and visual cues as a major clues and plot points.

This means the actors must be able to articulate dialogue and action well, with conveying the proper emotion and information visually also, and thank God the budget was able to afford the top tier casting which was fully able to do so. Every role is filled out with a capable person, all bringing nuance and subtlety to their characters.

This is a complex and winding tale based on a book. Don’t go in expecting Mission: Impossible, instead know it is more of a dialogue driven think piece, with a fantastic script.

The Alec Guinness mini-series of the same name from 1979 is also quite good. It is able to cover this story in 7 episodes, so it has a lot more detail. There is also a continuation series to that called Smiley’s People which furthers the story in another 6 episodes.