‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’: a delicate puzzle of a spy story

What is so prominent about “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” the latest movie adaptation of legendary John le Carré’s 1974 novel, is that with wit and intelligence it manages to condense its thick plot meticulously into its two-hour running time.

Directed by Swedish Tomas Alfredson (of “Let the Right One In” fame) and starring Gary Oldman as Cold War-era spy George Smiley, the film is washed in the dreary cold brown and grey colors of an era that is clearly not at all romanticized by the filmmakers or given any hint of nostalgia. On the contrary, this is a time and place in which espionage looks more like a masochistic duty in which both sides of the war are not that different from each other.

This masochistic duty also applies to the activity of cigarette smoking; the saggy butts of cigarettes hanging from the mouths of all the characters seem to represent the same habit/cause that they cannot escape from -- being men and women sacrificing themselves for their larger-than-life states. The diluted smoke in the air is much like a symbol for the muddy waters of who is evil and who is good.

Oh but there is so much intrigue and plotting… It is the early 1970s and British Intelligence MI6, also known as “the Circus,” is being run by senior official Control (John Hurt), who believes a double agent is working in the upper levels of the hierarchy. He recruits Jim Prideaux, the head of the scalp hunters division (the field agents who do the dirty jobs), to retrieve information regarding the mole during a trip to Hungary. Things go drastically wrong, and Prideaux is shot dead and Control is forced to retire along with senior agent Smiley.

A year passes and Control dies from a heart attack, but the presence of the mole is once again brought to the attention of the senior bureaucrats at the Ministry of Defense by minor field agent Ricki Tarr (Tom Hardy), who has gone rogue in İstanbul after another operation gone wrong. Smiley is brought back to identify the mole. He will work with Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch), the new scalp hunters head, with a handful of elites to figure out who the “traitor” is from the four main suspects: Percy Alleline (Toby Jones), Roy Bland (Ciarán Hinds), Toby Esterhase (David Dencik) and Roy Bland (Colin Firth).

What remains of the plot is given to the viewer as a delicate puzzle that deserves a whole lot of attention to put the pieces together, and what a joy that is because Alfredson and his writers, Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan, actually believe in the intelligence of their audience as they string together the events with such balance and finesse that the entire narrative and narration comes out flawless during the hunt.

The structural skeleton of the film serves as a backbone in studying what it really means to be a British spy in the Cold War era, or, more precisely, that the notion of “patriotism” is much over-romanticized at a time when officials are easily expendable; the inner-workings and the relentless ambitions of the intelligence agencies of the Western powers and the Eastern bloc are not so different in their disregard of their own people. Loyalties are treated with brief nods, but betrayals are punished with cruelty.

Alas, everyone is working for someone, and Smiley is the ultimate spy, whose silent and unassuming demeanor is only a facade for the mastermind he truly is. He says that the “fanatic” communist agents are the easiest to break down in the inquisition room because of their weak spot for ideology, but perhaps he is not so different in his hidden fanaticism to discover the traitor in his own organization. It must be said that Oldman gives such a convincing and authentic performance throughout the film that it is even just a pleasure to watch his subtle changes of expression. He does not act Smiley; he actually becomes Smiley to the point where you forget that he is in reality a screen actor.

“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” is a thrilling cinematic experience thanks to its impeccable direction and brilliant ensemble acting. It has the courage and intellect to show that espionage is a downright dirty business where any inkling of human emotions will be exploited for the benefit of one side’s “greater good.”

‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’

Directed by: Tomas Alfredson

 Genre: thriller

Cast: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Mark Strong