Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Published February 9, 2025
Film info
- Title Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
- Director Tomas Alfredson
- Year 2011
- Run time 2hrs 7m
- Genres Mystery, Drama, Thriller
- Tagline How do you find an enemy who is hidden right before your eyes?
In the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced from semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet mole within his former colleagues at the heart of MI6.
Live blog
| Time | Comment |
|---|---|
| 6:08 | Oh, I like Mark Strong, he wasn’t in it for long enough! |
| 10:49 | Loving their top secret sound-proofed on stilts rooms. I want one. |
| 17:59 | “I’m retired. You fired me.” Not the same thing. |
| 25:11 | Just me, or is John Hurt entirely the voice of the dragon and nothing else? |
| 34:35 | Must be so hard to be outside of the loop as a retired/fired spy. |
| 39:30 | Yay, he’s back in it! |
| 52:28 | I love that the name ‘Circus’ was presumably derogatory to start with but becomes sort of official. |
| 1:06:46 | Benedict’s hair in this is a real choice. He looks like a 00s boyband member. |
| 1:17:14 | “After today, Peter, you have to assume they’re watching you. If there’s anything you haven’t tidied up…” So chilling! |
| 1:28:46 | Tinker Tailor Soldier Poor Man? |
| 1:41:51 | Let’s go for a walk on a runway. |
| 1:59:55 | Odd choice for a headshot. |
Thoughts
I always think I’m going to really like spy movies, all that intrigue and double crossing and stuff. But most of the time I end up not knowing what’s going on and just enjoying the pretty pictures. This one was something similar, but it wasn’t helped by the pace of it. It’s a slow, slow movie, and is very much a style over substance production. The cast is incredible, naturally, stacked full of great names but they don’t seem to connect very well - whether friend or foe - and so I ended up feeling a bit disappointed by the whole thing. Especially because Gary Oldman is so good!
Rating: 2 / 5