Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Differs From Typical Spy Thrillers For The Better

Who can you trust? It's a question at the heart of so many spy thrillers, including the 1974 novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Penned by iconic author John le Carre, this text told a story regarding a mole in the middle of MI6 during the Cold War and one man's hunt to track that informant down. While the previous decade had seen James Bond define the British spy adventure as one full of action, ladies and exotic locales, le Carre's novel went in the opposite direction. What made it such a distinct work was its sense of restraint. There was no bombast to distract from the complex morality Tinker's characters grappled with. Such a subdued sensibility is maintained for its 2011 film adaptation of the same name.


The premise of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy focuses on George Smiley (Gary Oldman), a recently retired intelligence officer working for MI6 who is entrusted with a very important task. High-ranking officials in the British government believe a conspiracy that was championed by Smiley's former superior, Control (John Hurt). There is a mole within MI6 leaking information to the Russians. Smiley takes on the assignment of figuring out who this mole is. Smiley, with the aid of his companion Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch), must now re-enter the intelligence community as he grapples with the idea that one of his closest former co-workers could be the person he's hunting down.

I'd be lying if I said that it didn't take me a moment to adjust to the uniquely slow pace of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. However, it wasn't long before I got myself situated to how Tinker was telling its story. Eventually I found myself so wrapped up in the proceedings that it was easy to see why this particular story had become so influential in the spy thriller genre. Anyone worried that the idiosyncratic pace of le Carre's novel would be given a fast-paced makeover for the big screen need not fret. Writers Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan maintain that slow-burn style in their screenwriting.  Director Tomas Alfredson turns out to be a perfect choice to handle this material considering his 2008 horror film Let the Right One In already had a similarly muted filmmaking style.

This trio of individuals don't just work well in terms of translating the pacing of Tinker's source material to the silver screen, their creative efforts prove plenty engaging in their own right. Alfredson and cinematographer Hoyte von Hoytema especially prove impressive in how they're able to depict scenes of spy-related activities without ever coming across as glorifying the on-screen activities. An opening scene of an agent, Prideaux (Mark Strong) being double-crossed, for example, doesn't carry a propulsively exciting atmosphere like you might find in a Bourne movie. Rather, there's a sense of haunting unease in the sequence even before gunfire starts going off. Each of editor Dino Jonsater's cuts in this scene vividly convey the interior mindset of Prideaux as he soaks in every detail indicating that something has gone askew here.

That opening sets the tone for Tinker fully commits to not sensationalizing parts of its story that would function as big set pieces in other movies. Part of how this is accomplished visually is through the matter-of-fact camerawork of Alfredson and Hoytema. A scene of Tom Hardy's character Ricki Tarr barging into a hotel room is not captured through handheld camerawork that puts us up close and person with this character as he breaks down doors and barges in on people having sex. On the contrary, this whole scene is told through a static wide shot where Tarr's actions occur in the distance. We can make out what he's doing but his behavior is being depicted in a way that's supposed to convey detachment rather than excitement.

The way the scene is shot, through glass windows in a larger building, also makes the location appear like a dollhouse. This works as a visual suggestion that characters like Tarr are themselves just playthings to larger government powers. Tinker's got oodles of sequences like this one that contains such evocative visual choices. Similarly memorable is the screenplay, which delivers on not only a restrained spy story but also the kind of exciting twists we all come to these spy thrillers for. It's a smaller-scale and more subdued entry in this genre but those qualities tend to inform the most fascinating elements of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy which include a quietly riveting lead performance from Gary Oldman.