Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (REVIEW)

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Review

By Henry Brown – 9/10

It’s the midst of the Cold War and 1970’s Britain is sandwiched between the might of the American war machine and Russia’s ruthless Iron Curtain. Trading in a dangerous game of secrets and lies, MI6 struggles to maintain intelligence supremacy amidst the chaotic melee of double agents, defecting informants and secret sources. When agent Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong) is shot while on assignment in Hungary, the possibility surfaces of a hidden Soviet agent within the echelons of MI6. Drawn from retirement, espionage specialist George Smiley (Gary Oldman) is charged with discovering the informant, at peril to both himself and assistant Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch).

I’ll be honest: the first time I saw Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, I had no idea what was going on. Having never read John Le Carré’s novel of the same name, or the 1979 BBC TV mini series, my expectations were suitably off-kilter, as I believed I was going to see something like The Bourne Identity meets The Man Who Knew Too Much. Of course, I was completely wrong. 30 mins into the movie and I had a sudden revelation: this film actually expected me to work for my entertainment.