TN FILM FOCUS: ‘TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY’


 

Thomas Alfredson directs a ridiculously heavyweight cast in this cold war era tale of a hunt for a Soviet Agent within MI6. Alfredson made his name on these shores with his fan(g)tastic vampire drama ‘Let the Right One In‘.

 

Gary Oldman plays George Smiley, an intelligence officer bought out of forced retirement to find the mole that’s snuck into “The Circus” (the highest echelons of the intelligence services).
 

Oldman smells a Rat in adaptation of Le Carre’s classic.

 

Oldman alone makes a film enticing, but when he’s joined by the likes of John Hurt, Tom Hardy, Colin Firth and Mark Strong (to name a few) it becomes impossible to imagine anything less than an instant classic, something which early reviews are pointing towards it being.

This is not the first time Le Carre’s 1974 novel has been filmed, in 1979 it was made into a seven part BBC TV series starring Alec Guinness as George Smiley, and many have fond memories of that version. Can the dense detail of the novel really be condensed effectively into the running time of a feature film? I can’t imagine a better team to give it a go.

Expect an intelligent, gripping movie, which is more about chasing paper trails than car chases; an antidote to the summers glut of big-budget, small-brained blockbusters.

 

If that doesn’t make you scramble to the cinema on the 16th September (2011) then I don’t know what would!



 


 


 

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