A record number of attendees joined me for the Friday Noon Movie Club today—four! Three friends from church and one from our neighborhood. It’s getting downright crowded in the theater. There were more people in general in this showing of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy than I usually see at the Friday noon movies—the crazy holiday season must be behind us now.
After the movie we talked for a few minutes, and later I had a much longer discussion when our church movie group met. Both groups spent the greater part of the discussion just trying to figure out what happened.
This movie demands patience from the viewer. It is long, it is slow, and for the first 20-30 minutes it is impossible to know what is happening. If you watch it on your television, sprawled out on your couch, you will either fall asleep or find something to do while you watch it. And then you will miss half of the story, and you’ll be completely lost.
The story is a twisting, convoluted tale of espionage, populated with people who can’t fully trust anyone and who live under a cloud of suspicion. The 1970s come to life in sets and costumes, and let’s just say that 70s hairstyles really didn’t do much for anyone. There is a grey and grainy atmosphere to the filming, which lends to the cold war feel of the movie. The cities and the time frames blur together; the only way to tell what is a flashback and what is currently happening is to check which glasses George Smiley is wearing. Viewers can’t help but be disoriented, which seems intentional, helping us identify with a cast of characters who stand on constantly shifting ground.
There are some great details in the movie. One of my favorites was the signage. There were signs everywhere, for instance, in the elevator: “Beware of head entrapment.” Or in the reading room, where the sign says “Have you left anything behind?” Also, there are great scenes showing how much paper got pushed around before computers—elevators moving paper, women pushing carts full of paper. And lots of people boxed in by windows or walls or locked trailer-like meeting rooms within rooms.
I also discovered my new favorite celebrity name: Benedict Cumberbatch. Seriously. He plays Smiley’s assistant, Peter; he also plays Sherlock in the BBC show of the same name.
None of my movie pals had read the book (including me). A couple of people had watched the BBC miniseries from the 70s, and they helped explain parts of the story from what they could remember from the miniseries. My husband, Brian, read a few chapters of the book once but couldn’t get into it and gave up. Those who saw the miniseries said that it also started out slow and hard to understand, so apparently that is the M.O. of the story.
Another John le Carré novel that became a movie is The Constant Gardener. That 2005 movie was also a slow burn—not action-packed, but quite beautiful and I loved it. I’m not sure I’d say I love Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It’s got a few scenes that were a bit gritty for my taste, and more importantly, it is just so hard to follow. But the actors are incredible, and by the end I was waiting in suspense to find out who the “mole” was.
See this movie if you enjoy a film you have to unravel or solve; it’s undercover entertainment. If you want a slick action film, go see Mission Impossible.
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