Caught this one on Friday night, and truth be told, I've been excited for this flick since I found out about it last fall. It's been getting serious awards buzz, and having seen it, you can definitely see why. An absolutely stacked cast, great aesthetic, and tense, mature story combine to create one of the more watchable and enjoyable adult flicks I've seen in a long time. This one is based on a novel by John Le Carre, who was a former British intelligence agent and thus likely knows a thing or two about the spy game. If you're a British actor and you AREN'T in this movie, you should give your agent a call. John Hurt, Gary Oldman, Mark Strong, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock), Toby Jones, Ciarán Hinds and "boy of the year" candidate Tom Hardy star as the veteran intelligence officers of "The Circus" and younger trigger operations agents who do their bidding. Swedish director Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In) makes his mainstream Hollywood debut, so let's check this one out, shall we? It's 1973 and "Control", the head of British foreign intelligence, is convinced that there's a Soviet mole in the highest levels of British intelligence. After a failed operation, Control and Smiley, his top Lieutenant, are forced out, but the hunt for the mole continues. Over the next year, Smiley and his team meticulously attempt to puzzle out the complicated chess match that is cold-war era espionage. These aren't your James Bond spies, these are bookish men whose jobs consist of study, analysis and obsession rather than bedding exotic women and destroying cities with fanciful gadgets.
This flick is about two things: atmosphere and performances.. and it doesn't disappoint in either department. The setting is London, 1973, and this one is all muted colors, whispered conversations and backroom deals. The brief moments of action and excitement are unexpected and serve as punctuations to the tense machinations and maneuverings. The performances? Knocked out of the park. John Hurt, Tom Hardy, Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Strong and Oldman, especially. Through the use of flashbacks, the characters and their relationships with one another and their families are fleshed out, and we really see the human side of what was the front line of the Cold War. Oldman is given the most to do, and he doesn't disappoint, absolutely crushing this one out of the part and putting himself square in the middle of any awards conversation. His George Smiley is subdued, reserved and supremely competent, dedicated, loyal, determined and yet sad. In the hands of a lesser actor Smiley would come off as depressing or quiet rather than the complicated, confident and effective professional that Oldman presents.
This flick looks great, feels entirely authentic and presents Cold War intelligence as an unglamorous, thankless grind rather than the heroic romance so often presented by Hollywood. These are damaged men who sacrifice everything for country and in the name of world peace, and the flick pulls no punches in this depiction. The flick does very little hand-holding for the audience, foregoing expository dialogue for character-driven flashbacks. The performances are absolutely spectacular.. easily the best work by an ensemble I've seen all year. If I have complaints, simply that the plot at times is a little unclear.. but I feel that everything makes sense by film's end, in addition, the identity of the mole is tipped a LITTLE too heavily for my taste. The ending? Simply great. The always great Gary Oldman delivers, check this one out if you're in the mood for a complex flick made for people older than 16.
8.5/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment