Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

So I actually intended to watch this movie about 2 weeks ago. This was actually one of the movies that was on my Netflix List that I was looking forward to the most. There's a lot of good actors in it and it's all about spies and intelligence gathering during the Cold War. Everything sounded so awesome...

So why was this movie so boring and confusing?

Tiinker Tailor Soldier Spy is set in the middle of the Cold War and centers on a British Intelligence agency called, "The Circus". After an operation involving an intelligence officer (played by Mark Strong) in Budapest goes wrong, the director the Circus, codenamed Control (played by Jon Hurt), is let go. He takes with him another agent by the name of George Smiley (played by Gary Oldman).

Control passes away from illness but not long after, George Smiley is brought out of retirement in order to investigate the rumors that there is a mole within British Intelligence for the Russians. He brings on a young agent by the name of Peter (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) and the two of them begin an investigation into the rumors to see if they are true and uncover the identity of the mole selling British secrets to the enemy.

An interesting part of the film is that it doesn't exactly feel like an espionage film at all, it feels more like a detective mystery with much higher stakes. I believe George Smiley is based off a character of a long running novel series and based off the small amount of knowledge I have of the character, he seems a lot more like a Sherlock Holmes sort of character but of the intelligence world and that is a pretty good example of what you're in for with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

The rest of the cast is made up of a lot of talented actors who are members of the Circus. There's a couple of well known names like Colin Firth, Tobey Jones, and Ciaran Hinds. They play members of the higher brass of the Circus and they make a lot of the decisions, especially when it comes to intelligence gathering on the Russians which is a big part of the story.

And because there is a gallery of really talented actors in this movie, the acting is pretty good. I believe that Gary Oldman was nominated for an Oscar for his performance and I will give the movie credit, he does give a good performance along with everyone else in the film.

Here's the issue though...

This is an EXTREMELY boring movie!

Again, you'd think since it is a movie about spies with such good performance by a wide array of talented actors, this would be a suspenseful thriller.

But man you have to be leaning in closely and paying attention to every single word in this movie because it is a little bit of a snoozer.

I swear, the first 10 minutes of this movie is just Gary Oldman walking around the streets of London going about his daily activities and man is it boring.

There are a couple of moments in the movie that are pretty good and the performances do help those moments and scenes along but there's so much going on that I'm not always sure there's enough cohesiveness to pull everything together into a story that makes sense.

Now, to be fair, I was very confused by this film because it is very dry. British films can often be that dry storytelling and this is the driest of dry, especially in a genre that could be the juiciest spy suspense we could get.

For example, you have the character Tom Hardy plays. Without giving too much away, there is a section in the film where George Smiley sits him down and he explains his contribution to this mole hunt. He tells the story of how he fell in love with a Soviet Spy's wife and begins this relationship with her, at first to gain intelligence, but later because he loves her.

This is a really interesting part of the film but I first didn't totally know how it connected to what was before and how it connected to the rest of the story. I had to go in and read the synopsis on Wikipedia after I finished it to get the full story and even what I gathered while watching was confusing and not always clear.

Now don't think that I was absolutely clueless and had absolutely no idea what was going on. The basic plot that there is a mole in the British Intelligence is pretty clear and there is a path George Smiley is going on to discover the identity of that mole. But all the twists and turns are not always clear and again, you REALLY have to be paying attention to get every single bit of the movie.

And I would say that I'd like to go back and check this movie out for a second time so I pick up everything but that becomes incredibly difficult when the the movie just isn't that interesting.

I guess it's unfortunate that this was the only time Gary Oldman has been nominated for an Oscar because the guy is an incredibly talented actor.

I need to stop putting so much stock into the Academy Awards because they're not always accurate in pointing out the best of the best. But remember how everyone was bummed that Leonardo DiCaprio hadn't gotten an Oscar yet? I'm more of the camp that I want Gary Oldman to get an Oscar one of these days!

I think the best recent comparison I can bring this movie to is Jane Got a Gun, a very dull boring movie that I watched earlier today. While both movies were very wordy and had less action than I think was needed, I think Jane Got a Gun succeeded in my book more because of two reasons. As slow as that movie was and as wordy as it was, I totally understood what was happening and at the end of the film it all led up to something. Again, I don't want to give anything away but Tinker Tailor Solider Spy is not easy to follow unless you are giving this dull movie 110% of your attention, and at the end I didn't feel like it culminated to anything spectacular.

I thought it was a very standard mystery and there weren't enough twists and turns for me to really say that it was worth the dry boring parts that populated most of the film.

Like I said, I was originally supposed to watch this film a couple weeks ago but I couldn't because I kept on falling asleep.

Overall, this movie was a struggle for me. I like espionage movies and I even like them when there isn't a lot of action in them. But Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was so scattered that it was hard to pay attention and that was something you really need to do in this film. If you're up for sitting in front of the TV and taking notes during a movie, this one might be for you. But for the rest of us, I don't think that Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is necessarily a movie you absolutely need to see, unless you want to fall asleep.

But those are my thoughts, what did you think? Are there other films that Gary Oldman should have been nominated for an Oscar for that I don't know about? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. It's not related at all! But since it is the Christmas Season, why not get a laugh and check out Liam Neeson auditioning for a role as a Mall Santa. It's pretty good. Enjoy!