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nausicaa83Yesterday Tati, her mom and I went to the cinema to watch Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It was only us and another woman in there, so it was perfect, no one to bother us at all.
First things first, I loved it. Let's face it, I had to. It's a spy story, set in the year of Life on Mars, with some of my favourite actors ever. And then they went and put a beautiful cover of La Mer in that one scene too, and it's not like I love that song to pieces, and I want them to play it at my wedding, and my funeral, not at all.
For those who haven't seen it yet, yes, it's a slow movie. But it's the perfect pace for this kind of movie, and it just works. The story is complicated, but not hard to follow, you just have to pay very close attention. But that's what's great about spy stories, mystery novels, you can't get distracted.
We also weren't expecting Benedict Cumberbatch to have such a huge part, and that was wonderful. He was in almost every scene, it was great. And Gary Oldman was perfect, although that's not news, and Tom Hardy was... wow. He looked like he just jumped out of the seventies, he was so... real. And so beautiful, holy crap.
It was a tiny bit obvious who the inside man was. There was one point when Tati and I both thought it was all three of them, but if we had to choose one, it had to be Colin Firth, because he was the most famous one out of the three. It's an obvious trope. Not a fault, mind you. I also couldn't really blame the character for being a traitor.
Why? But because the main lesson I got from this movie was that being a spy sucks. I would never do it, not in a million years. The one character I related mostly to was Tom Hardy's. Benedict's character goes and dumps the man he loves and then sticks to his job, because in the grand scheme of things that's the most important thing, queen and country and so on. And even Gary Oldman's character doesn't seem that much depressed that his wife cheated on him, and she was actually so un-important that we never get to see her face. While Tom Hardy's character is ready to dump everyone, that shitty job, and start a new life with the Russian girl. Yes, it felt like naivete, but I was so on his side on that.
Also, that longing look and the smile at the New Year's party? God, that broke my heart, even more than the actual death scene later. I knew it wasn't going to happen, but I so wanted the two of them to just escape and run to a tropical island somewhere and live happily ever after.
Not to mention, all these spies are actually morons. You get five huge spies, and two of them are idiots who are feeding info to the enemy, and the third one is on the enemy's paycheck. Wow. It's a miracle we're all still alive and they haven't started World War III by accident in the 80s or something. I know it's fiction and all, but man, it's not a very flattering movie for spies.
I loved all the details, the costumes, the lights, the cars, the cinematography, everything to make us feel that it was the seventies. I still think that Life on Mars, even with a smaller budget, looked even more real, but not by much. God, I love that period.
Such great acting all around too. It was really hard not to squee every five seconds because everyone was so damn good.
And now, I'll drop by Amazon and order the bluray. This movie needs (and deserves) to be seen many times. *__________*
It's such a wonderful feeling when every movie you watch you just love. It's been a great year for movies indeed.
First things first, I loved it. Let's face it, I had to. It's a spy story, set in the year of Life on Mars, with some of my favourite actors ever. And then they went and put a beautiful cover of La Mer in that one scene too, and it's not like I love that song to pieces, and I want them to play it at my wedding, and my funeral, not at all.
For those who haven't seen it yet, yes, it's a slow movie. But it's the perfect pace for this kind of movie, and it just works. The story is complicated, but not hard to follow, you just have to pay very close attention. But that's what's great about spy stories, mystery novels, you can't get distracted.
We also weren't expecting Benedict Cumberbatch to have such a huge part, and that was wonderful. He was in almost every scene, it was great. And Gary Oldman was perfect, although that's not news, and Tom Hardy was... wow. He looked like he just jumped out of the seventies, he was so... real. And so beautiful, holy crap.
It was a tiny bit obvious who the inside man was. There was one point when Tati and I both thought it was all three of them, but if we had to choose one, it had to be Colin Firth, because he was the most famous one out of the three. It's an obvious trope. Not a fault, mind you. I also couldn't really blame the character for being a traitor.
Why? But because the main lesson I got from this movie was that being a spy sucks. I would never do it, not in a million years. The one character I related mostly to was Tom Hardy's. Benedict's character goes and dumps the man he loves and then sticks to his job, because in the grand scheme of things that's the most important thing, queen and country and so on. And even Gary Oldman's character doesn't seem that much depressed that his wife cheated on him, and she was actually so un-important that we never get to see her face. While Tom Hardy's character is ready to dump everyone, that shitty job, and start a new life with the Russian girl. Yes, it felt like naivete, but I was so on his side on that.
Also, that longing look and the smile at the New Year's party? God, that broke my heart, even more than the actual death scene later. I knew it wasn't going to happen, but I so wanted the two of them to just escape and run to a tropical island somewhere and live happily ever after.
Not to mention, all these spies are actually morons. You get five huge spies, and two of them are idiots who are feeding info to the enemy, and the third one is on the enemy's paycheck. Wow. It's a miracle we're all still alive and they haven't started World War III by accident in the 80s or something. I know it's fiction and all, but man, it's not a very flattering movie for spies.
I loved all the details, the costumes, the lights, the cars, the cinematography, everything to make us feel that it was the seventies. I still think that Life on Mars, even with a smaller budget, looked even more real, but not by much. God, I love that period.
Such great acting all around too. It was really hard not to squee every five seconds because everyone was so damn good.
And now, I'll drop by Amazon and order the bluray. This movie needs (and deserves) to be seen many times. *__________*
It's such a wonderful feeling when every movie you watch you just love. It's been a great year for movies indeed.
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no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 10:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 10:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-24 10:52 pm (UTC)Also brilliant book. If you haven't read it, I recommend it. When people talk about John Le Carré, they usually mention The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (which is also fantastic) but I think Tinker Tailor was even better in some ways.
Although *SPOILER* Cumberbatch's character wasn't gay in the book. They just... threw that in there, lol. It was well done though.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-25 08:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-25 08:16 pm (UTC)I'm excited for you! *geekout*
no subject
Date: 2012-01-25 08:33 pm (UTC)I may have to lie down for a while now.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-25 08:34 pm (UTC)