I have some really bad news:
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was an incredible disappointment. On this (now past) Easter Holiday....Jesus wept, and they were tears of boredom.
When I first heard this movie would be coming out, I looked forward to watching it. Unfortunately, when the opportunity presented itself, I couldn't even finish the whole film.
Its not that TTSS (I am not going to write out that title more than once) is a particularly bad film, its just that it is amazingly dull, but its killer blow was the fact that it was beyond confusing. It left the viewer (at least this one), with little or no idea just what the hell was going on. Within the opening ten minutes, there is a horrible feeling that the movie scenes were just put together in random order. I am not opposed to frequent flashbacks in a movie, but it has to be done in the right way. I think this film went overboard, and combine this with an already confusing story line, I was left scratching my head. I only knew the basic premise, but beyond that, I had no idea who certain characters were, or what purpose they served. When you make it through more than 50% of a movie, and your knowledge is the same as when it started, you are in trouble. You could tell that the plot was very involved, and when this is jumbled by frequent flashbacks that you are never quite are still going or not, totally throws one off. I feel that this oftentimes is a problem for spy films: too much intrigue, a complex plot, and several characters to keep track off, which ends up just obfuscating the story.
Now, I am far from someone who needs endless action or comedy to be entertained (A Separation, The Class, Moneyball....I could go on) but TTSS is dreadfully boring. This may have been born of the fact that I could just not keep with the goings on, but still, the dialogue and progress of events made my eyelids grow heavy. Its unfortunate, I wanted to like this film. It is full of actors that I really enjoy: Gary Oldman (I have forgiven him for his role is Rain Fall), Mark Strong (fantastic actor), Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, and John Hurt (Hurt can steal the show even if his role is 5 minutes long), but, it wasn't meant to be. However, I won't take anything from any of these gentleman, the acting is not bad. In fact, I think it is rather good. Oldman does his role of an old, disillusioned spy-master quite well, and Hurt of course was always fun to listen to when he came on-screen. It was just the setting they were put wasn't doing it for me. One other thing I will add, to the movie's favor, is there are some pretty neat shots of great cities, like Budapest and Istanbul, but they are brief.
Like I said, I couldn't finish the movie, I was on the verge of falling asleep. Again, very disappointed, I hoped this movie would be a winner, but an incredibly confusing plot and glacial speed meant that just wasn't going to happen. Again, I didn't expect any high drama or shoot-em-up action, just interesting story-line and maybe a gripping ending. I don't know about the ending, but the story-line bit didn't come off.
Verdict: I can't recommend it, but perhaps a better person could get something out of it. If anything, watch it for the actors, particularly the more senior ones, they are ace. Grade: N/A. It would be unfair to rate it without finishing it.
If you liked this movie you might also like: I suppose I could go with watching paint dry/grass grow, but I imagine being spectator to old English man in suits sitting around talking about balancing a budget might do the trick.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was an incredible disappointment. On this (now past) Easter Holiday....Jesus wept, and they were tears of boredom.
When I first heard this movie would be coming out, I looked forward to watching it. Unfortunately, when the opportunity presented itself, I couldn't even finish the whole film.
Its not that TTSS (I am not going to write out that title more than once) is a particularly bad film, its just that it is amazingly dull, but its killer blow was the fact that it was beyond confusing. It left the viewer (at least this one), with little or no idea just what the hell was going on. Within the opening ten minutes, there is a horrible feeling that the movie scenes were just put together in random order. I am not opposed to frequent flashbacks in a movie, but it has to be done in the right way. I think this film went overboard, and combine this with an already confusing story line, I was left scratching my head. I only knew the basic premise, but beyond that, I had no idea who certain characters were, or what purpose they served. When you make it through more than 50% of a movie, and your knowledge is the same as when it started, you are in trouble. You could tell that the plot was very involved, and when this is jumbled by frequent flashbacks that you are never quite are still going or not, totally throws one off. I feel that this oftentimes is a problem for spy films: too much intrigue, a complex plot, and several characters to keep track off, which ends up just obfuscating the story.
Now, I am far from someone who needs endless action or comedy to be entertained (A Separation, The Class, Moneyball....I could go on) but TTSS is dreadfully boring. This may have been born of the fact that I could just not keep with the goings on, but still, the dialogue and progress of events made my eyelids grow heavy. Its unfortunate, I wanted to like this film. It is full of actors that I really enjoy: Gary Oldman (I have forgiven him for his role is Rain Fall), Mark Strong (fantastic actor), Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, and John Hurt (Hurt can steal the show even if his role is 5 minutes long), but, it wasn't meant to be. However, I won't take anything from any of these gentleman, the acting is not bad. In fact, I think it is rather good. Oldman does his role of an old, disillusioned spy-master quite well, and Hurt of course was always fun to listen to when he came on-screen. It was just the setting they were put wasn't doing it for me. One other thing I will add, to the movie's favor, is there are some pretty neat shots of great cities, like Budapest and Istanbul, but they are brief.
Like I said, I couldn't finish the movie, I was on the verge of falling asleep. Again, very disappointed, I hoped this movie would be a winner, but an incredibly confusing plot and glacial speed meant that just wasn't going to happen. Again, I didn't expect any high drama or shoot-em-up action, just interesting story-line and maybe a gripping ending. I don't know about the ending, but the story-line bit didn't come off.
Verdict: I can't recommend it, but perhaps a better person could get something out of it. If anything, watch it for the actors, particularly the more senior ones, they are ace. Grade: N/A. It would be unfair to rate it without finishing it.
If you liked this movie you might also like: I suppose I could go with watching paint dry/grass grow, but I imagine being spectator to old English man in suits sitting around talking about balancing a budget might do the trick.
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