Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

In the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced from semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet Agent within MI6.

Director:

Tomas Alfredson

Writers:

Bridget O'Connor (screenplay), Peter Straughan (screenplay)

Stars:

Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 35 wins & 93 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Mark Strong	...	Jim Prideaux
John Hurt	...	Control
Zoltán Mucsi	...	Magyar
Péter Kálloy Molnár	...	Hungarian Waiter
Ilona Kassai	...	Woman in Window
Imre Csuja	...	KGB Agent
Gary Oldman	...	George Smiley
Toby Jones	...	Percy Alleline
David Dencik	...	Toby Esterhase
Ciarán Hinds	...	Roy Bland
Colin Firth	...	Bill Haydon
Kathy Burke	...	Connie Sachs
Benedict Cumberbatch	...	Peter Guillam
Stephen Graham	...	Jerry Westerby
Arthur Nightingale	...	Bryant

Storyline

In the early 1970s during the Cold War, the head of British Intelligence, Control, resigns after an operation in Budapest, Hungary goes badly wrong. It transpires that Control believed one of four senior figures in the service was in fact a Russian agent - a mole - and the Hungary operation was an attempt to identify which of them it was. Smiley had been forced into retirement by the departure of Control, but is asked by a senior government figure to investigate a story told to him by a rogue agent, Ricky Tarr, that there was a mole. Smiley considers that the failure of the Hungary operation and the continuing success of Operation Witchcraft (an apparent source of significant Soviet intelligence) confirms this, and takes up the task of finding him.

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Plot Keywords:

spy | cold war | mole | woman on top | hungary | 

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Taglines:

Trust no one. Suspect everyone.

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence, some sexuality/nudity and language

Details

Official Sites:

Focus Features Official site

Country:

France UK Germany

Language:

English Russian Hungarian French Turkish

Release Date:

6 January 2012 (USA)

Also Known As:

El topo

Filming Locations:

Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, London, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

£20,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£2,814,860 (United Kingdom), 18 September 2011, Limited Release

Opening Weekend USA:

$310,562, 11 December 2011, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$24,149,393, 22 March 2012

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$80,630,608, 22 March 2012

Company Credits

Production Co:

StudioCanal, Karla Films, Paradis Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

122 min

Sound Mix:

Datasat Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Gary Oldman was offered a gray-haired wig to wear for his role, but declined it, in favor of bleaching his hair for a more natural hairdo for a middle-aged persona like Smiley.

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Goofs

A scene in Istanbul showed a tram. There were no trams in Istanbul in 1973. They were in use up until the mid/late 1960s, at which point they were discontinued, and then re-introduced in the 1990s.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Control: [opening door] You weren't followed?
Jim Prideaux: No.
Control: Better come in.

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Crazy Credits

The closing credits constantly move back and forth across the screen.

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Connections

Featured in Ebert Presents: At the Movies: Episode #2.20 (2011)

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Soundtracks

Salut D'Amour
Written by Edward Elgar
Arranged & Produced by Michael Price

User Reviews

The Fact It's Uncinematic Is A Major Problem

John Le Carre is without doubt one of the literary greats of the late 20th Century . A master of complex story telling his novels are often composed of characters standing around discussing complicated geo-political situations and the human condition . This means that his novels are fundamentally uncinematic , a fact reflected that so little of his work has been adapted to the silver screen . With this adaptation of his 1974 novel I doubt if anyone was expecting a James Bond thriller and I know I wasn't but even so you're struck as to how a Le Carre thriller doesn't lend itself to mainstream cinema

You can't fault the film for its production values . It contains a who's who of prestigious big hitting British character actors such as Oldman , Hurt and Firth alongside up and coming peers such as Hardy and Cumberbatch . We also get a host of under rated actors in Strong and Burke and at a casting level none of this can be faulted . The look of the film is fantastic with the brownish dull hues reflecting both Communist Eastern Europe and run down Britain in the early 1970s and a day after seeing the movie my abiding memory of the film is the cinematography

The problem is that - and I'm afraid to admit this - is that I didn't have a clue what was going on most of the time . A British agent is shot and caputured in Hungary and MI6 believes he was set up by a mole . I understood this but then we cut to a character after character discussing who the mole might be , do we have a mole and we don't have a mole and very soon I was very lost . This film topped the film charts in Britain for a grand total of three weeks and one suspects by way of a backhanded compliment many people went to the cinema for a second and third time in order to unravel the plot . This is all well and good but illustrates the fact highly regarded novels often don't lend themselves to great cinema . Let's not forget two of the most memorable movies of the 1970s THE GODFATHER and JAWS were based on novels dismissed as trash