We saw TTSS and it was pretty good
Feb. 21st, 2012 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drwexPygment and I managed to get to see "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" yesterday. We both rather liked it. The movie does several things well, only one thing poorly, and we both thought Gary Oldman gave a great performance. Overall 4/5 stars.
The movie does a very good job of recreating its atmosphere, both in terms of being a 1974 work and in terms of being set in the post-WW2 Cold War era. TTSS was kind of seminal in establishing this genre and though lots of people have followed le Carré, he generally gets credit for doing it first. He also gets a producer credit on this film, so one assumes it has his blessing.
The movie is about a guy who's almost known for inaction. Kind of the inverse of Bond, Smiley doesn't shoot people, doesn't romance gorgeous women, doesn't have fancy tech toys, and doesn't smooth-talk everything in sight. To make the role work Oldman has to play a guy with few lines over a couple different ages - flashbacks feature prominently in the fim - and with little in the way of dramatic motion. The acting in the movie is largely in the characters' movement and the glances.
The novel is dense and complex - I remember struggling through it as a teenager - and the movie simplifies a number of things (including making explicit some things the book leaves ambiguous; again, I assume le Carré approved this so it's canon). The problem is that these simplifications make it harder for the viewer to understand how Smiley unravels what's going on. There's a metaphor-filled cut-scene where I would have preferred some direct explication. Ah well.
I should also note that although Oldman's performance is the stand-out one, Benedict Cumberbatch as Peter Guillam and Tom Hardy as Rikki Tarr also do really good jobs. Hardy is set to appear in the upcoming Dark Knight Rises, which should be interesting.
The movie does a very good job of recreating its atmosphere, both in terms of being a 1974 work and in terms of being set in the post-WW2 Cold War era. TTSS was kind of seminal in establishing this genre and though lots of people have followed le Carré, he generally gets credit for doing it first. He also gets a producer credit on this film, so one assumes it has his blessing.
The movie is about a guy who's almost known for inaction. Kind of the inverse of Bond, Smiley doesn't shoot people, doesn't romance gorgeous women, doesn't have fancy tech toys, and doesn't smooth-talk everything in sight. To make the role work Oldman has to play a guy with few lines over a couple different ages - flashbacks feature prominently in the fim - and with little in the way of dramatic motion. The acting in the movie is largely in the characters' movement and the glances.
The novel is dense and complex - I remember struggling through it as a teenager - and the movie simplifies a number of things (including making explicit some things the book leaves ambiguous; again, I assume le Carré approved this so it's canon). The problem is that these simplifications make it harder for the viewer to understand how Smiley unravels what's going on. There's a metaphor-filled cut-scene where I would have preferred some direct explication. Ah well.
I should also note that although Oldman's performance is the stand-out one, Benedict Cumberbatch as Peter Guillam and Tom Hardy as Rikki Tarr also do really good jobs. Hardy is set to appear in the upcoming Dark Knight Rises, which should be interesting.
