I love a good spy movie, and who doesn't love slow-moving pieces driven mostly by dialogue. Okay, I may be alone on the second one. Anyway, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy managed to walk that line as closely has possible without falling off, only swaying from side to side.Circa 1973, a British Intelligence agent is shot and wounded during a botched mission in Hungary. As a result, the head of the agency (aka The Circus) and his right-hand man George Smiley (Gary Oldman) are forced into retirement. It wasn't long though before Smiley is brought out of retirement to look into an allegation by agent Ricki Tarr (Tom Hardy) about a high-ranking mole. Smiley soon starts interviews with all the higher ups in the Circus. But each one of them seems to be more suspect than the last. In the meantime, Tarr's story about how he's come to believe in the mole's existence gets deeper and deeper. Smiley keeps getting answers, but not all of them are ones he wants to hear. These men are some of best colleagues he's ever worked with, how could one of them turn on the agency?
While Gary Oldman was great in this movie, I was really hoping for slightly more. As I mentioned before, this was a very slow moving film. And I didn't have a problem with that. My problem was how the plot kept jumping back and forth, almost intentionally confusing the viewer. I understand it's a whodunnit, but there has to be a focused plot line that can be followed. Plus, as in any good spy movie, I expected some twists and turns. TTSS didn't really have any. It walked the straight line of mediocrity without moving at all. It's a good film, nothing more, nothing less. Grade: B-
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