Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (film)

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a 2011 English-language espionage film directed by Tomas Alfredson, from a screenplay written by Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan based on the 1974 novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré. The film stars Gary Oldman as George Smiley, and co-stars Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch and Ciarán Hinds. Set in London in the early 1970s, the story follows the hunt for a Soviet double agent at the top of the British secret service.

The film was produced through the British company Working Title Films and financed by France's StudioCanal. It premiered in competition at the 68th Venice International Film Festival. The film received favourable reviews and was the highest grossing film at the British box office for three consecutive weeks.

In an opening flashback scene, Control, the Head of British Intelligence ("the Circus"), sends agent Jim Prideaux to Budapest, Hungary to meet a Hungarian general who wishes to provide information. The operation is blown and Prideaux is shot in the back and captured by Soviet intelligence. As a result Control and his right-hand man George Smiley are been made to "retire" from the Circus. Control has since died, and Smiley, whose wife has left him, is shown living an empty life.

Percy Alleline has become the new Chief of the Circus, with Bill Haydon as his deputy and Roy Bland and the Hungarian-born Toby Esterhase as close allies. They have established their status by delivering apparently high grade Soviet intelligence material, code named "Witchcraft" (in flashback it is shown that Control and Smiley were suspicious of the veracity of Witchcraft), obtained at a secret safe-house, and Alleline is now reopening a channel to the Americans to obtain US intelligence in return for "Witchcraft" material.

Smiley is brought out of retirement by Oliver Lacon, the senior civil servant in charge of intelligence, to investigate a story, told to him in confidence by agent Ricki Tarr, that there is "a mole, right at the top of the Circus" who has "been there for years". Lacon is concerned as Control had come to him with a similar theory, which Lacon had rubbished at the time.

Smiley's investigations are aided by Peter Guillam, Tarr's boss, who still works at the Circus. He obtains the list of those who "left" the Circus at the same time as Smiley and Control. One is researcher Connie Sachs, who had been sacked by Alleline for deducing that Polyakov, a Soviet cultural attaché in London, was in fact a Soviet agent and mole-handler. Another is Jerry Westerby, who had been duty clerk on the night Jim Prideaux was shot - Westerby had rung Smiley's house for instructions, but Smiley was away in Berlin. Shortly afterwards Haydon had arrived at the office to take charge, telling an obviously false story about having heard the news "on the tickertape at his club" at 1am. Guillam assumes that this proves Haydon to be the mole, but Smiley reveals that Haydon would have heard the news as he was having an affair with Smiley's wife.

Smiley finds Tarr hiding at his house. Tarr tells him how he had been sent to Istanbul to investigate a Soviet agent, Boris. He had been about to return to London, when he saw Boris beating up his wife, Irina, and he had started an affair with her. Irina was also a Soviet agent and had told him of the existence of the mole run by Soviet spymaster Karla. When Tarr had informed London of this news by telex, after a long delay he received a bizarre message telling him to return home at once. Boris was then killed by his own side (along with the British station chief in Istanbul) and Irina taken back to the USSR. Tarr has been on the run ever since, accused by the British of defecting and murdering the British station chief.

Smiley instructs Guillam to steal the logbook of the night Tarr called in his discovery from Irina. Whilst in the building Guillam is summoned to a meeting with Alleline and his colleagues, who warn him that Tarr, whom they accuse of being a defector spreading false stories, has been detected flying into Paris and demand Guillam report any knowledge of his whereabouts. Guillam finds Tarr with Smiley and, thinking he has been made a fool of, physically attacks him before Smiley shows him that the logbook has had the relevant page removed, evidence that Tarr's story about the mole is in fact true. On Smiley's orders, in order not to give the mole any reason to have him sacked, a distraught Guillam tells his gay partner to leave (in that era a gay man could have been dismissed from a security job as he would have been regarded as a blackmail risk).

Prideaux is revealed to be alive, to have been repatriated, and to have been paid to "disappear" by Esterhase. He is interviewed at the prep school where he has taken a position as a teacher - Prideaux reveals that the true purpose of his mission to Hungary had been to learn the name of the mole. Control had code named the suspects "Tinker" (Alleline), "Tailor" (Haydon), "Soldier" (Roy Bland) and "Poorman" (Toby Esterhase). Irina had been shot dead in front of Prideaux during his interrogation, further evidence that Tarr's story is true (Smiley does not tell Tarr she is dead).

Smiley learns that Alleline, Haydon, Bland and Esterhase have been meeting with Polyakov at the secret safe-house, giving him what they believe to be worthless British information (thinking that, in the eyes of his Russian superiors, he is a loyal KGB agent, and needs something to show them) in return for Witchcraft material. In reality the mole has been leaking genuine British information to Polyakov, and the Witchcraft material is mostly "chickenfeed", with just enough "glitter" for Karla's real aim, now about to be achieved: to persuade the Americans to share intelligence with the British, which the mole can now leak to Polyakov.

Smiley obtains the address of the safe house from Esterhase by threatening to have him deported back to Eastern Europe. Smiley has Tarr - whom the Soviets want dead because of what he learned from Irina - resurface at the Paris office, knowing that the mole will then want to meet Polyakov to discuss the matter. Smiley captures the mole, who is revealed to be Haydon, at the safe-house. At the "Nursery" at Sarratt, the agent training and interrogation centre for the Circus, Haydon reveals that, on Karla's orders, he seduced Smiley's wife Ann in order to discredit any suspicions Smiley - the only man in the Circus whose abilities Karla really respects - may have had of Haydon (at a meeting in India years earlier, Smiley had tried to persuade Karla to defect by telling him repeatedly to "think of his wife", thus revealing his own weak spot). Before his mission to Hungary, Jim Prideaux had visited his friend (and, it is implied, possibly homosexual lover) Haydon and tipped him off about Control's suspicions - thus inadvertently sealing his own fate. Prideaux tracks Haydon down and shoots him dead. Smiley is elevated to take control of the Circus.

The project was initiated by Peter Morgan when he wrote a draft of the screenplay which he offered to Working Title Films to produce. Morgan dropped out as the writer due to personal reasons, but still served as an executive producer.^[1] Following Morgan's departure, Working Title hired Peter Straughan and Bridget O'Connor to redraft the script. Tomas Alfredson was confirmed to direct on 9 July 2009. The production is his first English-language film.^[2][3] The film was backed financially by France's StudioCanal and had a budget corresponding to 30 million US dollars.^[4]

The director cast Gary Oldman in the role of George Smiley, and described the actor as having "a great face" and "the quiet intensity and intelligence that's needed". Many actors were connected to the other roles at various points, but only days before filming started, Oldman was still the only lead actor who officially had been contracted.^[5] David Thewlis was in talks for a role early on.^[6] Michael Fassbender was in talks at one point to star as Ricki Tarr, but the shooting schedule conflicted with his work on X-Men: First Class. Tom Hardy was cast instead.^[7] On 17 September 2010 it was confirmed that Mark Strong had joined the cast.^[8] Jared Harris was cast but had to drop out because of scheduling conflicts with Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. He was replaced by Toby Jones.^[9]

Principal photography took place between 7 October and 22 December 2010 in London, Budapest and Istanbul.^[4] Blythe House in Kensington Olympia, west London, was used as the location for "The Circus."^[10] Empress Coach Works in Haggerston was used as the location for the Merlin safe house. Other scenes were filmed on Hampstead Heath and in Hampstead Ponds, where Smiley is shown swimming, and in the physics department of Imperial College London. The production reunited Alfredson with cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema and editor Dino Jonsäter, with whom he had made his previous film, Let the Right One In.^[11]

The exterior shots of the hotel'near Liverpool Street' that Smiley uses as a base, were shot in Wilkin Street London NW5.

The film premiered in competition at the 68th Venice International Film Festival on 5 September 2011.^[12] StudioCanal UK distributed the film in the United Kingdom, where it was released on 16 September 2011.^[13] American rights were acquired by Universal Pictures, which have a permanent first-look deal with Working Title, and passed the rights to their subsidiary Focus Features. Focus plan to give the film a wide release in the United States on 9 December 2011.^[14]

Reviews for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy have shown mostly favourable critical acclaim.^[15][16] As of 6 October 2011, the film held a 97% approval rating from 40 reviews at review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.^[16]

Jonathan Romney of The Independent wrote, "The script is a brilliant feat of condensation and restructuring: writers Peter Straughan and the late Bridget O'Connor realise the novel is overtly about information and its flow, and reshape its daunting complexity to highlight that."^[17] David Gritten of The Daily Telegraph declared the film "a triumph."^[18]

Detractors of the film included Peter Hitchens of The Mail on Sunday, who wrote that the plot would be too baffling for viewers who had not read the book, and that the film's makers had "needlessly messed it up".^[19] David Edwards of the Daily Mirror wrote, "The big question – and one Le Carré himself asked when the film was announced – is whether such a hefty novel can fit comfortably into a feature-length production. In answering this, the writers have pared things back, meaning it's far pacier than the seven-part TV show. Unfortunately, the plot is every bit as bewildering with an overload of spy-speak, a few too many characters to keep track of and a final act that ends with a whimper, rather than a bang."^[20]

The film topped the British box-office chart for three consecutive weeks.^[21] As of 17 October 2011, the website Box Office Mojo reported that the theatrical revenues corresponded to 17,275,78 US dollars.^[22]

• Official website
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy at IMDb
• Template:Allrovi movie
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy at Metacritic