Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Expectations:
While I didn't quite understand what was going to happen in this movie, I did hope that I would be impressed with the storyline. All I did know about the movie was that it was going to be about the British version of the CIA. At least that's what I thought. This movie has received a lot of Oscar hype and even brought Gary Oldman his first ever nomination for best actor, so you just assume that it is going to be good. There were many great names attached to the film, such as Colin Firth and Tom Hardy. Everything about this movie pointed toward it being good, but I just had no clue what it was about. I don't know about you, but I love it when I have no clue about the movie heading into the theater. Everyone remembers how clueless they were when they went in to watch Inception, and some remember how clueless they were when they left. Based on this cluelessness alone, I had to watch Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Plot:
While I won't give away much here, I will say that this is the most complicated and in depth storyline of 2011. No other movie this year even came close to making me wonder what was happening, but Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy had me wondering the entire time. The problem was that I never really figured out what I was wondering about. Maybe I'm just not as smart as I think I am, but I left that theater not really knowing what just happened. The movie started very slow, and there were a lot of useless people walking around. I thought I was following it quite well, but I guess not. I can't really say if the plot was great or not, just because I didn't understand it.

Characters:
As I said, this was a very star-studded cast, and it certainly didn't hurt the end product. Colin Firth was great as usual in the role of Bill Haydon, one of the top dogs in the British Intelligence. Another one of the top dogs was Toby Esterhase, played by David Dencik. Esterhase was a good character, but I just didn't understand how someone so nervous could possible work for the British Intelligence. Tom Hardy's character, Ricki Tarr, added a lot of depth to the plot, but I didn't see why anymore depth was needed. He was important but unnecessary, if that's even possible. Last, but not least, Gary Oldman was not impressive as George Smiley, not in my opinion at least. He certainly wasn't bad, but I don't understand how he could possibly merit an Academy Award nomination on this performance.

Best Character: Toby Jones is one of the eeriest actors on planet earth, and he added a great eeriness to his character, Percy Alleline. Many of you might remember Jones from Captain America. I just don't understand why he is so scary, but he just is.

Worst Character: Peter Guillam, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, was probably the most useless of the useless characters. If they would have cut his character out, I think Smiley (Oldman) would have been a lot more interesting. They spent too much time on Guillam's back story, and it didn't matter one bit.

Conclusion:
I honestly don't know what to say about this movie as a whole. I promise that you HAVE to pay great attention to every single detail, but I still can't promise that you will understand. Although I did understand bits and pieces, I will have to rent this movie in a few months to have complete closure. The biggest problems I had with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy were the very slow opening and the very quick ending. Not to discourage you from watching, but I just didn't understand. When I left, I wasn't quite as clueless as I was when I got there, but I was close. You may love it, though. Who knows? Because I didn't understand, I am not going to give a rating for the movie. If you are super curious, just go watch it...