Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

[Impact]

Review, Discuss and Have Fun!

[CoolioD1]

Excellent. It's hard not to appreciate filmmaking as wonderfully crafted as this. Also features the best ensemble cast of the year so far, with Mark Strong being the best of the lot.

Edited November 12, 2011 by CoolioD1

[ddddeeee]

Fairlly soulless and seemingly made solely for awards. No me gusta.

[Travod]

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, SpyAMC Lincoln Square - 12:20A million seats, two floors, 100 people ish.Trailers:Dragon Tattoo yay!Extremely Loud good!A movie with the kid from There Will Be Blood "The lord works in mysterious ways yes he duzzah!"Movie:It's really slow, but compared to the book (which I just finished last night) it's faster than The Social Network. Everyone is great, particularly Gary Oldman. Tom Hardy and the guy who plays Guillam were also good.It starts getting tense in the archives scene around halfway through. The ending is changed from the book, but I think it's for the better. The whole ending, the montage of everyone set to La Mer (Beyond the Sea but in French), was really amazing. It was so perfect. I'd see the movie again just for those 5 minutes.I can see Picture, Actor, Score, Cinematography (it's really pretty), Art Direction, Supporting Actor (I don't know who though, there are so many great performances, not Colin Firth though) and Makeup.-Everyone was talking on the way out. Great reactions - and it sounded like most people read the book.

[Gopher]

It's a nuanced, well-crafted thriller with some stellar performances (Oldman disappears into this role). Maybe a little too calculated. It's certainly confusing as hell. Maybe I should read the book.

[acsc1312]

Loved it. The first act drags a bit, but once we get going, it doesn't stop. The whole story of Hardy's character was so intriguing, and Hardy gives one of the best supporting performances of 2011 in those 10ish minutes alone. Oldman is spectacular with a subdued, but very very strong performance. I did not expect the ending, as I fell for the forshadowing of who they though it was at first. I'd love to see this again.Acting ranks for me:OldmanHardyStrongCumberbatchA-

[AniNate]

A dull, incomprehensible thriller that fails to generate much in the way of actual thrills. The atmosphere and production design are nice, and the cast is all decent even though they really didn't have to do much of difficulty, but the movie never gave me much reason to care about its mystery or its multitude of characters.

C

[baumer]

I'm sure John Lecarre's book was well written and maybe even comprehensible and exciting, but something got lost in translation from his words to the images on screen. This is an incredibly meandering and slow film and it is incredibly confusing at times. I have no idea why Tur or Tor or Fur or whatever Bayne's name was in this, had to go to Paris at the end. I also have no idea why i cared about who the mole was. They did a terrible job of making me care about a bunch of spies working for the British government. The acting is good no doubt, but because the film is really like watching paint dry at times, I can't give it more than a 6/10

[4815162342]

Tarr went to Paris because:Earlier in the film the bosses of the Circus when grilling Guillam (Cumberbatch) said that rumors indicated Ricki Tarr was in Paris in hiding. In order to sell the mole on the bait at the end of the film, Tarr had to "officially" resurface in Paris so the info would be genuine and the mole would be comfortable to hand it over to Polyakov, who would then presumably pass the info to the KGB who would then move in to eliminate Tarr.The plot is very understandable if you pay attention and let your brain do a little thinking.

Edited January 9, 2012 by 4815162342

[AniNate]

An understandable plot does not in itself make a good movie. There was no reason for me to be invested in anything that was happening on screen.

Edited January 9, 2012 by tribefan695

[4815162342]

An understandable plot does not in itself make a good movie. There was no reason for me to be invested in anything that was happening on screen.

I'm just countering baumer's opinion that the plot is confusing. It certainly isn't if you bother to pay attention and connect the dots.As for your opinion, I can understand that since the film is very dry and cold in its approach, being very deliberate in how it constructs the characters and plot points. For some, that's a turn-off. Edited January 9, 2012 by 4815162342

[baumer]

Tarr went to Paris because:Earlier in the film the bosses of the Circus when grilling Guillam (Cumberbatch) said that rumors indicated Ricki Tarr was in Paris in hiding. In order to sell the mole on the bait at the end of the film, Tarr had to "officially" resurface in Paris so the info would be genuine and the mole would be comfortable to hand it over to Polyakov, who would then presumably pass the info to the KGB who would then move in to eliminate Tarr.The plot is very understandable if you pay attention and let your brain do a little thinking.

Sorry, that still sounds confusing.

[4815162342]

Nobody's perfect

[Ezen Baklattan]

Wether or not you found it confusing, you've gotta admit that there's some really good filmmaking going on here.

There's not a weak part to this film, IMO. The cinematography, the art direction, the performances, everything fits perfectly together. The final montage set to La Mer was absolutely incredible. It's certainly pretty confusing, but it never lost my interest. I truly wanted to piece everything together, and I was able to get most of the important elements of the plot.

B+/A-

[mattmav45]

It's a really dense, complex film that will likely need a few watchings to really fully appreciate.

It's more of an old-fashioned spy drama than thriller, so the "lack of thrills" arguments don't really hold much merit. This is 10x the spy film that MI:4 was. I'll take an attention-to-detail, building supense spy film anyday over the ridiculousness of a nuclear bomb threat, climbing the tallest building in the world while a dust storm approaches, etc.

First 20 minutes are somewhat slow, but once it gets going I was engrossed throughout. Definitely in my top 6-7 of the year, and could potentially break top 5 or even higher once I watch again.

B+

[AniNate]

The movie never built any suspense. It was just a bunch of people talking for two hours with the only thing to raise interest being a gratuitous shot of a gory dead body. And the only drama I really got out of it at the end was that Colin Firth became a mole because he hates the west for some reason.I tried to pay attention, I really did. I walked into the film knowing full well how slow it was. But I just really couldn't find a reason to care about anything that was happening on screen. Whatever the movie was trying to be, it failed IMO.

Edited January 22, 2012 by tribefan695

[mattmav45]

Ehh, I thought there was plenty of suspense.It just didn't have the usual cheesy music or random loud noises to alert the watcher..."Watch out, here's some suspense!"

[AniNate]

I actually liked the first 20 minutes the best out of the film. The opening credits sequence had me optimistic for something like a full length BBC-ish drama (the music played a role in that, I'm sure). But most scenes are just dragged out way too long to hold my interest and I spent the movie hoping it was all going to come to some magnificent payoff which never came.

Edited January 22, 2012 by tribefan695

[rockNrollaDIM]

Can't decide if I should see this in theaters or not... It's polarizing, and sounds like it could be a chore to watch. Trailer really interested me though.. Hmmm.

[4815162342]

See it. Just be patient sitting through it and keep your mind attentive. It's a deliberate, measured film that doesn't spoon-feed you the plot or the character motivations.