Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

  Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy tells the story of MI6 agent George Smiley (Gary Oldman) coming out of retirement to aid in the investigation and capture of a mole planted by the Soviet Union.  It is a movie based on a miniseries of the same name from 1979 with Alec Guinness as the lead role.  This film features one of the most star-studded British casts I have seen and every player fits their role perfectly.  Gary Oldman is one of my favorite actors of all time, and is well accompanied by Colin Firth, John Hurt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hardy, Mark strong and others most will recognize.  The plot follows a team of agents who seems to work specifically against the soviet union as they utilize various intelligence resources to identify and rectify issues they are having with intelligence leaks.  That's basically the whole plot, and watching it unfold is actually very, very BORING.

  I've been dancing around watching this film for a long time.  Some films take a certain mindset to sit down and watch and I wasn't about to take this film lightly.  First of all, my main man Gary is not to be doubted in most cases.  His acting has always been brilliant from what I've seen, even if the films he is featured in are less than stellar.  I have read that Oldman has not used the same accent twice throughout his films, and I am yet to find that to be false (except of course in reprising the same character of Commissioner Gordon for the Batman films).  I have come to love Cumberbatch from his work as Sherlock, as well as Dr. Strange.  Even Tom Hardy has grown on me, and I have come to liken him as a British Channing Tatum (say what you want, but after The Hateful 8 he earned my respect as an actor).  For those of you kids who aren't familiar with the legend that is John Hurt, two words: find out.

  I finally had worked up the nerve to watch Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and had set my expectations for acting at high, for story and cinematography at medium, and left a big blank spot under plot.  I felt I was ready as I'd ever be, so I hit play and delved into the world of 1973 British espionage.  It was slow, so I was patient.  Then, it was still slow, so I was more patient.  And even after that I was still patient with it, and I realized something very important; it wasn't that it was slow, it was just boring.  I was all set and ready to get into it with no distractions and my head in the plot, and it was simply not entertaining.  I was kind of dumbfounded.  Forty-five minutes into the film and I was ready to hit the point at which I'd be pulled in, but it never came.  I waited until and hour and 15 in, but still it never came.  With fifteen minutes left I finally accepted it never would.

  Here's the thing about this movie: it is certainly a well-made film.  The acting is great.  The plot is strong.  The cinematography is very good.  Somehow though, the suspense, the action, the driving forces of the movie just seem to fall flat.  There are many scenes in this movie where you think there's going to be dialogue, but no, no there isn't.  That is a very good and useful technique to create interest in the scene by letting silence speak volumes, but I think it may have been overdone.  They should've just actually had Gary Oldman say something most of the time, instead of filming actors bouncing lines off of him while he stared about stoically.  There were even a couple of scenes that I could tell were supposed to be suspenseful because of the shots and the soundtrack, however I felt no such suspense.  Even when I had questions about what was going on, who the mole was, and so forth, I didn't actually care!  I just...kind of wondered.  I did encounter an issue with the timeline at one point, where I thought, "Hey, isn't he dead?"  But it was only a passing thought and once it was rectified I still genuinely DID NOT CARE.

  It's really a shame about this movie, because it certainly has all the elements needed to make a great movie.  I felt though, in the end and middle and beginning, that it was not that entertaining.  Perhaps it has more relevance to someone who has seen the original miniseries, or was alive in Britain during the cold war.  Or maybe if you like to study film you will enjoy the well done aspects of it.  I'm glad I gave it a shot, and I certainly appreciated seeing a film that was well made with many of my favorite British actors in it.  However I will not be watching it again as it was not entertaining. Two and a half stars.

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