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218 of 221 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Life's such a puzzle to you, isn't it?, June 30, 2005
Don't blink. Don't leave the room to attend to business with the television running. Hit the pause button. This is advice for those unfamiliar with the plot of John le Carré's TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY. There is a heck of a lot going on here, a basketful of characters and three major subplots introduced in the first two episodes of this six-episode mini-series.
TINKER, TAILOR is a sinuous story of a mole in high places in the British Secret Service, also known as the Circus to insiders. Called out of retirement, a rather premature retirement, we learn, George Smiley (Alec Guinness) is called on to uncover the British official selling secrets to the Soviet enemies.
In the interesting 2002 30-minute interview on disk one writer le Carré tells us that after the initially reluctant Guinness signed on everyone wanted to work on the project, and this mini-series is studded with great actors. Fortunately so, too, because this movie takes place around restaurant tables and in dingy `safe' houses more often than in exciting, exotic locales. This one belongs to actors who can deliver in tight close-ups much more so than to special effects wizards who can blow things up prettily.
At the center of it is Guinness, who, in my opinion, is simply brilliant. In the interview le Carré mentions that Guinness was always shaving lines off the script, reducing his role, so to speak. Wasn't good at memorizing lines. There's more to it than that, though. Guinness approach is minimalist to practical non-existence. I probably won't be able to convey it, but somehow Guinness makes little to no impression. There aren't the stream of dramatic utterances, or even the little bits of business (fumbling with a tie, for instance) that most actors seem to love. Usually, the only time we see a real reaction is when a character has his back to Smiley/Guinness and mentions Smiley's wife Ann. Then the reaction, small enough, in context is powerful because it manages to break through the carefully crafted mask. Guinness realizes Smiley as a spy, a man who's genius is to make no impression, to cast no shadows and leave no clues. In lesser hands, which is pretty much anyone else you could mention, this approach would be unutterably bland, but Guinness's blandness is at times almost dazzling. The highest recommendation for this one.
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115 of 120 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Slow, methodical, but relentless, May 18, 2004
The opening shot sets the tone of the entire six hours. We see a dingy meeting room in an old London office building. The radiators are indiscretely visible, the paint is peeling off the walls, the lone cabinet looks creaky. Through the windows we see it's a cold grey day. A man sits at the table smoking a cigarette; he is soon joined by a second who sits diagonally opposite him. A third man arrives with a tea cup, saucer over the cup to keep the contents from splashing. A fourth man smoking a pipe arrives, sits at the head of the table sets down a folder and opens. The scene has lasted a minute, it was silent, no music was heard, though the first man coughed once or twice. The last man then says "We are ready to begin" and low horns begin sounding the theme music. This is director John Irvin's idea of a quick scene! Later scenes move much more methodically, and involve long conversations about the plot, but that are framed beginning and end with chit-chat about the wife and the cottage. There is some action, but we almost feel it interferes with the plot and we want to get back to those conversations that contain the gold dust we need to sift out of the polite exchanges. Alec Guinness is perfect as George Smiley. Slow and methodical and illustrating GS's quirks and mannerisms perfectly. Notice how often he takes off his glasses and wipes them clean. The rest of the cast performs admirably. On my first viewing, they had managed to hide some truly difficult dialogue (e.g. "Now, Young Mr. Guillam, are you happy in Brixton?" le Carre's weakness is realistic dialogue, for all his realism elsewhere) and turn them around into believable expressions of character. Finally it seems the weather improved the production no end. Many of the scenes were filmed outdoors during the third coldest recorded winter since WWII. The actors were cold and were genuinely oppressed by particularly rotten English weather. This added to an already realistic production. Highly highly recommended.
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67 of 69 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A masterful production of a Cold War classic, August 9, 2004
As far as the spy genre goes, the Cold War was the good ole days. Previous generations of spy thrillers from authors like Eric Ambler focused on the nefarious undertaking of spies from various Balkan countries and other corners of Europe, but with the onset of the nonshooting war between the West and the Soviet Union, the spy genre reached its zenith. Just before the collapse of the Soviet bloc and the ending of the Cold War, John LeCarre managed to perfect the spy novel in a series of great works. Two of these novels were brought together to produce two amazing television masterpieces: TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY and SMILEY'S PEOPLE. Smiley is the polar opposite of James Bond. Physically unattractive, elderly, unathletic, a cuckold many times over, not a master gunman, George Smiley nonetheless emerges as the quintessential master spy, with a razor sharp mind, always keeping his own counsel, and dissecting every situation with impeccable logic.
The success of the television adaptation was assured the second they recruited Alec Guinness to play George Smiley. The Smiley of the novels does not in most ways resemble Alec Guinness. Smiley is reported as resembling a frog, of always wearing expensive but ill fitting clothes, of being extremely fat, none of which is true of Guinness. But there is one way in which Guinness is perfect for the role, and which makes him a huge success in the series: Smiley is described by LeCarre as possessing a beautiful, sonorous, honey-like voice. It is no exaggeration to say that Guinness's voice dominates this series. Even if the series had done nothing else well, Guinness would have made the series a success.
Nonetheless, the production brought a great deal more to the table than Alec Guinness. The script is exceptional, and while it does not function on as high an artistic level as the novel (which is very well written indeed), it does preserve much of the complexity of the novel's plot. LeCarre makes the reader work, and understanding the novel TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY is not the simple exercise that reading Robert Ludlum or other spy novelists is. Frankly, I found it enormously refreshing to have to work hard at understanding a TV miniseries. The hardness is not superfluous, but central to the mood of the story. The complexity mirrors the moral complexity of the situation the characters find themselves in. The makers of the series could have simplified the plot, could have made everything that was happening clear from the outset, but it would have thereby distorted the story. The opening credits begin with a shot of those Russian dolls that open to reveal a still smaller doll inside. The story is one of layers beneath layers, like unpeeling an onion. The complexity of the narrative enhances this.
The cast is large and superb. Although Guinness is clearly the star, a host of superb actors like Ian Carmichael and Joss Acklund fill out one of the most talented casts in television history. A pre-STAR TREK Patrick Stewart has a small but crucial appearance as Smiley's arch nemesis Karla (he returns in SMILEY'S PEOPLE). On one level, not very much happens in TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY. Mainly there is a great deal of talk, but it is glorious talk, made all the better by the superb cast. But the best thing in the series remains the character of George Smiley and the host of contradictions he contains. One thrills at his mastery, especially near the end when he masterfully gathers together all the threads of the mystery and with utter ease overwhelms his opposition, and yet feels pity for him in the closing scenes, where he flutters around his wayward wife, the infamous Ann, as flustered as a schoolboy.
Luckily, the George Smiley saga did not end with this series, but continued in SMILEY'S PEOPLE, in which his struggle against his KGB opponent Karla is brought to a satisfying end.
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