2 out of 5

Director: John Irvin

Alec Guinness is A GENIUS and director John Irvin HAS A MASTERFUL GRASP ON THE THINKING MAN’S THRILLER or so the many positive reviews of TTSS would have you thinkin’.  And I’m sure it’s true, in the same way that Godfather is one of the greatest films of all time and I thought Laid to Rest was better.  It’s all subjective, and John le Carré source material and dry UK stylings make you seem civilized to point your thumbs up at, so, sure, it’s fantastic.  But I felt it was plodding, and rather ineffectively structured, and bails right when it starts to let us in to its characters.  And look – I really enjoyed Sandbaggers, so it’s not just a pacing issue.  I also watched episodes 1 -5 (out of 7) a couple times each, because my mind would wander as the on-screen conversations would linger, and at episode’s end I’d think to myself – I get this, I get what’s going on, but that means that nothing is really going on – and so I’d convince myself that I was missed an hours worth of super subtle and clever subtext or something but, nope, just some long shots that establish nothing for the narrative except that, I get it, spies aren’t James Bond, and that George Smiley – as played by Alec Guinness – is good at letting people talk themselves into revealing details that betray their betrayals.  And by details I mean a few words that come at the end of the discourse, that Smiley then repeats all British dry, saying “I wonder how he knew that?” wink wink SMILEY GOT YA!

But I digress a million times because it’s really not… it’s really not bad, and it is good, and it is well acted, but you DO have to prop your eyes open to keep watching, and the slow paced nature of the whole shebang makes those flaws – obtuse characterization, unnecessary linking shots – somewhat more fatal to the whole experience.  And yeah, I’m reacting above moreso to the general response to TTSS than to the material itself; the lumps and lumps of praise its received seem questionable.  It’s just one of those things that gets the classic tag attached to it for various reasons and then to cast dispersions upon it means that you have poor taste.  But I ask you – could I enjoy watching Uwe Boll films and have poor taste?  Please, good sir, surely you jest.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy boils down to a mole hunt.  Is the mole a Russian working within Circus, the le Carré name for British SIS headquarters?  Is the Russian-planted mole whose information a power-hungry Circus man has ridden to the top legit, or actually feeding us disingenuous piddles?  A botched attempt to find some answers – Operation Testify – end in disaster and shame for severa; SIS’ers, including George Smiley.  But when Circus’ Russian mole’s activities – codenamed Witchcraft – come under scrutiny, Smiley is brought quietly back to investigate those most likely involved in a double-cross – all the top Circus men.  For 7 eps, Alec Guinness makes pleasant conversation with any and everyone attached to this thing, gathering clues, polishing his glasses before offering a cold, penetrating stare, and slowly closes in on the traitor.  All of the names and back and forths are a bit much to absorb, and I sense that’s why things were slowed down to a crawl.  It was also, I assume, important to highlight the gist of le Carré’s writing style – political ambiguities; coded conversations between affluent men in suits affecting the lives of people countries away – and thus much space is given to let things bloat to fill those blurry borders.

There just must have been a better way.  We start off by showing us the failed Operation Testify, but without much introduction to the Whys and Who’s Involved.  This is an acceptable tactic, of course, but this stretches on for quite a bit before we switch back to modern day, and so I found myself wondering when we would return to that initial storyline before understanding that… we wouldn’t.  It’s just a long prelude.  The series continues to cut in similar past moments without any indication of a time change except where a character is telling the story and also appears in the flashback.  It’s just odd that for something that takes so much time (laboriously showing George writing down clues or facts or smoking or sitting) that it doesn’t follow some more traditional visual narrative rules to help us find our footing.  Hell, I’ll admit it – I had no idea what the fuck that intro was for a few episodes until I read the wiki page.  And then there are our characters – almost entirely older men, fine, but also all without an inkling of outside interest to their personalities.  Things are told like we should already know / admire these characters, and Guinness gives Smiley a billion pounds of reverence that seems a bit silly until we’ve had a few episodes with him.  By this time the series is finally starting to work… the trails are finally paying off and so things inch forward; we’ve seen enough scenes with the main characters to understand and appreciate their roles …but by this time it’s episode 5.

To me, that’s too long to wait for the smallest of payoffs.

I don’t doubt that this could be a riveting book.  I also don’t doubt that this was a respectful and accurate adaptation, and TTSS definitely set a template for the dry British thriller.  But sometimes the page-for-page approach doesn’t serve the visual medium well.  It boils down to: I did not enjoy watching Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.  Once it was in motion, I could see more clearly what there was to appreciate, but I think the updating of this template has, overall, produced much more successful work – other adaptations of the author’s and more.