Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Disappointing is the word that springs to mind after watching TTSS. Perhaps my expectations where set too high or the 'intelligent' spy genre just isn't for me, but personally this largely favoured British film just failed on too many levels.

The cast, on paper, is undoubtedly stellar and talented; Gary Oldman, John Hurt, Tom Hardy, Benedict Cumberbactch to name just a few, but you'll be picking out famous faces all the time. In reality most of them feel largely underused. Gary Oldman hardly acts save for one or two scenes towards the end, and instead 'does a Gosling' (a phrase me and my housemates use after Ryan's performance in Drive where he stares without speaking for unnaturally long times. At least in Drive I felt it was a purposeful, over exaggerated character trait of that stereotype. Here it just doesn't fit with the tone of the film!). The other actors, whilst all acting more than Oldman, were given little time to shine. I felt most attached to Tom Hardy's character after a 10 minute introduction than I did to Gary over the whole film. Shout out to Tom as one of the most versatile actors of recent years.

Then there's the story. I really didn't care! It was slow, overly complex and uninteresting. I get the impression a lot of people who said they enjoyed TTSS are doing so just to prove their intelligence. I just felt it was poor storytelling. Some of the pivotal, reveal scenes were blink and you'll miss it. Above all, I'd lost all interest by the end and couldn't care less who did what and what happened to who.

It was however an aesthetically pleasing film. I feel like I bang on about lighting a lot, but here it really is well directed to create some rather interesting eye pleasing shots. Apart from aesthetic value and a dream cast it falls too far due to poor storytelling and underdeveloped characters resulting in little care for anything that goes on. Disappointing. 6