Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

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  • Opened December 9, 2011 
  • 2 hr 7 min
  • R | Some Sexuality/Nudity, Language and Violence

  • Parents: Common Sense Media says Iffy for 16+. More on child suitability

  • In 1970s England, Control (John Hurt), the head of MI6, dispatches a spy (Mark Strong) to meet with a Hungarian general who knows the identity of a Soviet spy within the organization's ranks. However, the mission goes wrong, and the general dies before he can reveal the information. Undersecretary Oliver Lacon (Simon McBurney) calls veteran agent George Smiley (Gary Oldman) back from forced retirement to ferret out the mole and stop the flow of vital British secrets to the Russians. Full synopsis

  • Cast: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong, Ciarán Hinds, John Hurt
  • Director: Tomas Alfredson
  • Genres: Suspense/Thriller

What's the Buzz?

So-so
Fans say So-So
1,097 fans
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Must Go!
Critics say Must Go!
85 out of 100
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Fan Reviews

Oh No!
Walked out of this movie

by reasonedreviewer

Wow - what an unsatisfying, disappointment of a movie. Was really looking forward to seeing Gary Oldman - it would have been nice if he spoke sometime in the first 20 minutes of the movie, rather...

Go
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

by jplazareck

Gripping cerebral mystery about the search for a traitor in British intelligence during the Cold War. I was fully engaged by the story and the acting, though some of my friends found it hard to...

No
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY

by dottieb01

Slow, confusing, dull, pretentious in its forced and aritificial austerity. Not nearly as interesting or compelling as the miniseries or even the Le Carre book upon which it is based. Actually a...

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Critic Reviews

100
San Francisco Chronicle
| Amy Biancolli

Screenwriters Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan have clarified a few things that needed clarifying, camouflaged a few things that needed camouflaging - and gently tugged some passive flashbacks into the active present. It's a cagey adaptation. Read full review

95
NPR
| Ella Taylor

The screenplay, by Peter Straughan and his late wife, Bridget O'Connor, is debonair. Alfredson's mastery of tone and ambiance is flawless. The bloodletting is brief and necessarily appalling, the comedy mordant: I guarantee you will never sing along to "Mr. Woo" in quite the same way again. Read full review

90
Wall Street Journal
| Joe Morgenstern

This version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy turns on the presence of Mr. Oldman, and he is an actor of great experience and accomplishment who has finally found a film that fully deserves him. Read full review

88
Boston Globe
| Ty Burr

In its attention to detail and awareness of betrayals both political and human, "Tinker Tailor'' is a movie for grown-ups. Read full review

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Colin Firth as Bill Haydon in "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.''