Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Most movies hold your hand and spoon feed you the story; 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' steals your spoon, blindfolds you, and pushes you down some stairs. Greatly enjoyed its change of pace and approach. George Smiley is Batman.

Haven't enjoyed so much a movie for a long time as much as I enjoyed this one.

This is not shoot 'em up with gun, looks and predictable drama. Rather then shoot them with words, discrete yet effective violence, with great acting and swirls of intense dialogs.

Brilliant!

Perfect in every way. The directing, the performances, the writing, the set design, the editing, the music. Every way. 😊

I'm not saying everyone has to like this movie, but if you thought it was tedious, boring and slow, you obviously missed the point. This film is a masterpiece, based on a masterpiece novel by a master storyteller, who didn't need explosions and chases and fight scenes to keep a story interesting, and doesn't have it's characters borderline breaking the fourth wall just to tell a brain-dead audience what is going on. Watching Tinker Tailor required a lot of concentration, for me at least, and that's what I loved, wracking my brain to try and work out the fine details, which is why I understand a lot of people wouldn't enjoy it, because they'd rather sit back and relax and switch the old noggin off. in my opinion though, the best film is a film that challenges you, doesn't hand you everything on a silver platter, and doesn't stick with the grossly overused Hollywood formula and cliches. That is why I choose to rate this film so high, as well as the absolutely wonderful acting by some of the UK's best, where looks, expressions and gestures mean just as much as words themselves. The cinematography and music also top the film off nicely, with the film-grain look being quite prominent and the minimal, held-back music. Absolute 70s magic

This is one of those films that separate the real film appreciators from the average Joe. When you read "spy movie" you probably think that this is going to be some James Bond movie. It is far, far from that. I absolutely loved it. Gary Oldman couldn't have said more than 200 words in the whole movie and he was phenomenal.

This is probably one of those kinds of movies that is a litmus test for the kind of movie viewer you are (I recently thought the same of The Station Agent).  If you can appreciate and love a film like this you and I are probably going to get along alright.

A movie that requires active viewing. The story is not quite clear at the beginning, but that is what I like about it. You have to fill in some parts of the story as well, while you follow along with Mr. Smiley trying to solve this mystery.

Great cast, nice cinematography and a fascinating plot.

'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' is very much a slow burn but it's worth it at the end, even if I wouldn't describe the premise as unpredictable - it isn't predictable per se, I just can't say I was majorly surprised at what occurs that's all.

It's not as complicated as the film suggests I feel, that's not a criticism but I'm just saying if I wrote down what I thought was going to happen at the start and checked it at the end, I'd be mostly right - at least with an outline. That's not me being big headed, I just feel it throws a lot of false curve balls to go around the houses a tad. The only part, to be honest, I didn't fully get while watching was the Polyakov bits.

All the cast give excellent performances, with Gary Oldman (Smiley) and Colin Firth (Haydon) standing out most. You've also got Tom Hardy (Tarr), Mark Strong (Prideaux), Benedict Cumberbatch (Guillam), Stephen Graham (Westerby) and Toby Jones (Alleline) all there too. You can't really go wrong with a list like that.

The onscreen talent carry events, but this is still a film that keeps you watching and paying attention - just not to a deep, deep level. With everything said, I still enjoyed this. You should definitely give it a view.

>PETER GUILLAM Ricki Tarr, sir. One of my scalp-hunters. He’s been on the wanted list for a year. Last job was Istanbul, bit of coat-trailing for a Russian convention.
LACON Why is he on the wanted list?
PETER GUILLAM He killed our man in Istanbul. Cut his throat. Been on the run since then.
LACON My God. In my own home... my family... The bloody animals you people employ!

The sexiest pair of glasses in the history of cinema.
And then there’s the movie. An elegant spy story where the smoky atmosphere and the cast’s subdued performances are valued more than action (which is nonexistent) and plot twists (which get spoiled by the casting choices). I must confess I fell asleep the first time, while I was totally captivated on my second viewing. I don’t like to be spoon-fed in movies, but I wish they could at least stick with one name for each character. Sometimes it’s their first name, sometimes their last name, sometimes their code name, that alone makes the first viewing quite intense.

>"It's the oldest question of all, George. Who can spy on the spies?"

This feels like a love letter to older spy movies. It is slow, detailed, a little intense at times without having too much action, and requires a lot of concentration to not get lost at times. Unfortunately I did get lost a little but overall I enjoyed the complexities of it.