Monday, February 6, 2012

Oscar Project 2012: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Movie: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

I come from a family of Le Carre fans, so we were all really excited about this one, and while no adaptation is perfect, I really, really liked this. The cast was amazing, the tone and atmosphere were perfect, and the movie as a whole was thoroughly enjoyable in a complicated, dreary way. I know a lot of viewers were confused by it, and it definitely helps to have read the book and/or seen the BBC miniseries, but I also think the confusion was part of the point. Who wants a straightforward spy story?

Availability: Was widely available; starting to leave theaters now, so go see it!

Nominated In:
Actor in a Leading Role: Gary Oldman had some big shoes to fill, after Alec Guinness in the miniseries, and he did a virtually perfect job of it, playing the character exactly without making it seem like he was imitating Guinness. He kept Smiley correctly understated, but was a very strong presence at the same time.

Original Score: The score was great - moody and atmospheric, with those paranoid seventies undertones.

Adapted Screenplay: The adaptation did a good job of making an extremely complicated book as comprehensible as possible in two hours. I really only had one issue with it: every single female character in the book had her role either reduced or written out completely in this version. That was extremely disappointing.

Movies left: 44; Days left: 21
Have seen 28% of movies and 50% of nominations.
Movie posts I owe you: 9

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