Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

[nessaniel]

"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" is adapted from John le Carrés best-selling novel of the same name and its cast reads like the annual BAFTA's guest list.
London 1973: Mr. Smiley (Gary Oldman) is forced to retire from his position at the "Circus", the head of the British secret service, together with the former leader Control (John Hurt) because of their apparent ineffiency. But Smiley cannot indulge in sweet retirement life for too long for he is asked to investigate Control's last theory that a mole sits at the head of Circus and feeds the enemy with dangerous information. Now Smiley must untangle a web of conspiracy and mistrust in order to find the Spy among the other leaders, Allline (Toby Jones), Bill Haydon (Colin Firth), Toby Esterhase (David Dencik) and Roy Bland (Ciarán Hinds). Together with Peter Guillaum (Benedict Cumberbatch) and young scalphunter Ricky Tarr (Tom Hardy) they trace the leads to a mission gone wrong in Hungary and the mysterious Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong and seriously EVERYONE IS IN THIS MOVIE, even that one Russian guy from the "Wächter der Nacht" movies which is awesome btw).

First of all, I have to admit that I really don't like John le Carré's novels. I read "The Constant Gardener" and "The Tailor of Panama" some five years ago and boy was that dreadful. Although le Carré's plotlines are nothing short of magnificent and breathtakingly intriguing he fails in the empathy department. His protagonists are sometimes completely detached from their reality as if one would watch cardboard cut outs talking to each other, their motifs completely vague and dictated by some higher power. This is especially bothering since John le Carré isn't too fond of thrilling action scenes and most of his story telling is ... well telling not showing so it was kinda hard for me to stay focused during loooooong conversations or inner monologues by characters I couldn't relate to.

How does that translate to the big screen?
In one word: perfectly.

Director Tomas Alfredson (who is btw also responsible for "Let the Right one in" and that was a fantastic movie!!!) does what le Carré couldn't, he makes us feel with the characters, hell, he takes this spy novel and makes it into a tragic love movie!
There are no less than three (four if you want to be picky) relationships in this movie at varying degrees of destruction and it breaks your heart to see them struggle to hold it together. There aren't that much actions that are motivated by love but still love and warmth is the price the protagonists have to pay in order to save their country.
There is only one sex scene in that movie (which is very very mild but still cringeworthy and oh so mysogynistic but I won't start on this again I promise xD and well we see Tom Hardy's sexy legs so...) but the other relationships have much more of an impact. The way they are portrayed solely through looks or distant smiles or by telling others about it asks for highly capable actors to pull it off without sounding or looking stupid and in this the movie outdoes itself: no matter where you look you never doubt the authenticity of the setting or the characters or their solemn devotion to their duties and how it pains them to see their love lifes crash and burn.
Especially Benedict Cumberbatch killed me in that one scene (which came out of friggin' nowhere and was beyond beautiful and heartwrenching) but his performance was altogether superb. He didn't even have that much text but there were some scenes you just knew wouldn't have had the same impact without him. For me as "Sherlock" fan especially it was nice to see him in a certain state of powerlessness and with no one there to help him out (or to be his hostage in moments of need xD).
The pacing of the movie is relatively slow and it feels more like a crime movie with Smiley going around and asking people for their motifs and their aspects of the story which is then told in flashbacks or foreshadowing. It is kinda hard to follow if you are inwardly screaming and squeeing about the epic love everywhere to keep track of all the characters and places and story twists and how did he find out this right now but in the end everything comes together and you sit there stunned and flabbergasted because the very ending is suprising and even more heartbreaking than the rest.
(How often did I say heartbreaking? XD)
I'd love to tell you about my absolute favourite moment in the whole movie but that would spoil the whole ending so just let me tell you: WAAHHHHHH TRAGIC LOVE ;_______; I'd never dreamt I'd say that but please give me John-le-Carré-fanfiction? XDD

So all in all: go watch it, if you can the original version (it's a shame really that I can't seem to find any movie theatre that is willing to show this movie in its normal version -..-) because it's a very subtle awesome movie and it makes a great "guess that actor and where do you know him from?" game. ;D

(But one thing, movie: in the department of women? You suck. Badly. There are like... three or four women in the whole movie and one of them isn't even shown completely but only as a shadowy appearance. You can go figure out what that means for the love relationships I talked about earlier. ;D )

Edit: Oh and another thing: Everyone in this movie is constantly smoking everywhere and the few violent scenes are very shocking. Just a warning that came to my mind just now because I tumblr-tagged TTSS

Comments

Re: [Spoilers ahead!]

[nessaniel.livejournal.com]

Pass auf, nachher ist es DAS Buch schlechthin und alle anderen Bücher von le Carré sind mir einfach so nervig vorgekommen. xDDD

Jaaaa, ich verstehe, was du meinst. Ich hab ihnen sowieso nicht abgekauft, dass sie ineinander verliebt waren: Ricky war einfach nur spitz und sie hat in ihm die Chance gesehen, endlich in den Westen zu kommen (während Smiley Ricky befragt, war Gary Oldman ja mal sowas von grandios... man hat ihm ja angesehen, dass er sich dachte "Solch ein Bullshit und ich muss mich damit rumschlagen,ARGHASGSJH!!!" xDDD aber das natürlich gaaaaanz professionell).
Und vor allen Dingen, wie frauenfeindlich war es: "Ja, die hat nur einmal guten Sex gebraucht, dann konnte er ihr ihre Geheimnisse entlocken." WTF. Egal. Ich stimme dem "Ihr Tod war super!!!...aber selbstverständlich nur aus cineastischen Gründen und nicht etwa weil sie schwer nervig war"-Statement zu. Das kam auch reichlich überraschend in dieser Szene, war aber für sie wahrscheinlich das bestmögliche Ende. So völlig irre in den Klauen von Karla... brrr, nee. xD

Ahhhhhhh ein Mensch, der die Bücher kennt!!!!! AHHHHHH!!!!!!! Großartig. <3 Und ja, die Filme sind leider... uhm... cringeworthy, seien wir mal nett. xD Anton/Kostja FTW! Gott, ich hab so gejubelt beim vierten Buch, weil das Ende so toll war und awww generell alle und aww ich muss es dringend noch mal lesen. <<3333333 *unkontrolliertes Fangirlgeschrei*

Ich schieb's auf die Zigaretten.^__^
Ahahahhahaha, ja, gute Taktik. xDD Aber hier auf Archive of our Own gibts gaaaaanz viel FF, auch zu Peter und seinem anonymen Boyfriend (der fanonmäßig Henry oder Richard heißt xD) ud auch zu den ganz Tragischen. Zauberhaft. <333

Re: [Spoilers ahead!]

[der-jemand.livejournal.com]

Noch besser. *gg*

Oh Gott, ich liebe, liebe, liebe die Bücher. Und vielleicht will ich Russisch nur deshalb lernen, damit ich die Bücher im Original lesen kann. ;)
Und ja, das Ende! - Ich liebe Lukianenko (und vor allem die Wächter-Bücher) schon allein deshalb, weil seine Bücher so wunderherrlich grau sind. *__*
Aber sowas von ja zum Nochmallesen!
Irgendwie mochte ich den Wächter des Tages-Film trotzdem. Er war so bunt und daneben und... ja, ich mochte ihn.^^


Oh ich hab ein bisschen gestöbert...^^ Und was mich wirklich irritiert: Irgendwie scheint "Er hat Richard/what ever weggeschickt, um ihn zu schützen" eine sehr beliebte Interpretation zu sein. - Ich hab's im Film wirklich anders verstanden. Diejenigen, die ihn beobachten, ist ja sein Verein. Und natürlich wussten da auch alle bescheid, aber ich hab's wirklich als "Wenn sie mich jetzt beobachten, ist es offiziell und damit offiziell illegal/unhaltbar" interpretiert. Aber ich hab noch nicht nachgeguckt, wie das in den 70ern und dem öffentlichen Dienst in GB war (prinzipiell war es nicht mehr illegal, so lange niemand sonst im Haus war? Das müsste zeitmäßig hinkommen...). Na ja, Meinungen dazu? Und was fangirlen wir heute abend? xD