Tinker, tailor
Feb. 6th, 2012 22:54![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torquillI went to see Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy today. TL;DR: Brilliantly done.
Despite the best of intentions, I had neither read the book nor seen the canonical version with Alec Guinness, so I went in knowing little more than a blurb about it. That didn't seem to be a problem -- I did grow up watching The Sandbaggers and I used to read Queen and Country, so I'm somewhat familiar with the innards of MI-6.
The casting was well done, including the chameleonic Gary Oldman as Smiley, Benedict Cumberbatch as Peter, and John Hurt as Control; the acting was absolutely excellent, with lots of significant looks and complex expressions. The camera work really stood out. The sets were fully consistent with 1973, with nice details which may have come from the book (I really should read it). The pacing was great, with some very tense points well-measured, and the slower parts not dragging at all. There was some brutal violence in it, but it was always brief and shocking, not gratuitous; if anything it served as a foil to how genteel the behavior of most of the people was, even when they were more metaphorically stabbing each other in the back.
What struck me the most both during and after the film was that it had such a minimalist approach to storytelling. Not always subtle, meaning that sometimes the events were quite overt, it had several points where the use of just a significant look and a handful of words in a twenty-second scene was enough to communicate whole volumes of information. This movie had the lightest hand on exposition I've ever seen, and yet I never felt like I didn't have the whole picture. It kept the pacing brisk, and allowed for a great deal of background without sacrificing either running time or plot. I think whoever did the editing deserves an award as much as the screenwriter does.
I'll be buying this one when it comes out, much as I did with Goodnight, And Good Luck. I think of the two, however, Tinker, Tailor is far better. It's in general release in a few theaters, and it's well worth seeking it out... but stay alert while you watch it, or you'll miss entire books of subtext.
Despite the best of intentions, I had neither read the book nor seen the canonical version with Alec Guinness, so I went in knowing little more than a blurb about it. That didn't seem to be a problem -- I did grow up watching The Sandbaggers and I used to read Queen and Country, so I'm somewhat familiar with the innards of MI-6.
The casting was well done, including the chameleonic Gary Oldman as Smiley, Benedict Cumberbatch as Peter, and John Hurt as Control; the acting was absolutely excellent, with lots of significant looks and complex expressions. The camera work really stood out. The sets were fully consistent with 1973, with nice details which may have come from the book (I really should read it). The pacing was great, with some very tense points well-measured, and the slower parts not dragging at all. There was some brutal violence in it, but it was always brief and shocking, not gratuitous; if anything it served as a foil to how genteel the behavior of most of the people was, even when they were more metaphorically stabbing each other in the back.
What struck me the most both during and after the film was that it had such a minimalist approach to storytelling. Not always subtle, meaning that sometimes the events were quite overt, it had several points where the use of just a significant look and a handful of words in a twenty-second scene was enough to communicate whole volumes of information. This movie had the lightest hand on exposition I've ever seen, and yet I never felt like I didn't have the whole picture. It kept the pacing brisk, and allowed for a great deal of background without sacrificing either running time or plot. I think whoever did the editing deserves an award as much as the screenwriter does.
I'll be buying this one when it comes out, much as I did with Goodnight, And Good Luck. I think of the two, however, Tinker, Tailor is far better. It's in general release in a few theaters, and it's well worth seeking it out... but stay alert while you watch it, or you'll miss entire books of subtext.
