Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Again

There are certain movies that are better watched on DVD where commentaries, captions, and replays are almost mandatory,  TTSS (2011) is one of them.  Despite its somewhat un-Hollywood pacing and directing, the DVD is kind of hot and I have to reserve it online and wait for its arrival at a public library near me.  Or it simply reflects how bad the economy is, nobody is buying DVDs (that's me), or people are simply watching it on demand via streaming or pirating?  I have no idea.

The movie is without a doubt based on the novel by John Le Carre.  It makes a few changes here and there, which is expected, but in essence it's still boring and confusing, hence easily confused to be cerebral, or maybe it is, and therefore very Le Carre.  Hong Kong and Czechoslovakia are excised from the film for whatever reason.  And Peter Guilliam turns pink instead of a straight up heterosexual dude in the book.  Rarely do I see a movie with that many ugly looking guys, OKAY, maybe just one, Toby Jones who has the rare talent to make all his co-stars better looking than they really or already are.  A very interesting face if you are diplomatic.  Jones is memorable in the film for all the right reasons, the "what's that shrug for" and the final "walk in the rain in shame and anger" scenes are probably among the best and easily eclipse others'.  John Hurt usually ages well in movies, with the help of make-up and lighting of course, but he definitely looks lumpy here and perhaps that's what the character calls for, a paranoid curmudgeon who is ultimately ousted from the Circus and dies alone in the hospital.  Gary Oldman is a miscast in appearance which I can easily overlook.  You simply can't make the guy look bad.  In the last shot, he is practically a male model rather than the short fat Smiley in ill fitting clothes that's portrayed in the book.  The entire ensemble cast is exceptionally delicious, everybody does his utmost to look serious and seriously paranoid.  One unexpected light moment perhaps is when Mark Strong's character Jim Prideaux shot Bill Haydon, played by Colin Firth who seems to be gay cast ever since A Single Man.  Prideaux sheds a tear which is corny and unexpected, so I found it funny.

If you enjoy nuance performance, subtitles and commentaries, the TTSS DVD will not disappoint.