Sunday, January 8, 2012

Tinker, Tailor, Solider...what??

I was way too excited about this movie, and it went completely against my expectations. The trailor made it out to be a fast-paced spy thriller full of twists and turns and a suspenseful soundtrack chalk-full of violins. In reality, it was a slow, detailed, slightly confusing with a plot requiring more focus than heart surgery. Though these opening sentences may portray that I was disappointed by the movie, I was actually just thrown by it. It was certainly high quality cinematically and undeniably well-acted; I was espeically impressed by Gary Oldman.

Before seeing this movie there is one thing that you should know: the plot is more confusing than learning Hungarian. And, you may actually have to learn it (and Russian for that matter), if you are like me and sitting in a row where the subtitles are blocked by the seat in front of you. If I had gone in with the knowledge that I would need about three cups of coffee in order to really get what was going on, I would have been a lot better off. To make matters worse, there were two actors that I had never seen before in anything else who I thought were the same character until they were shown in the same room together about halfway through the movie. So, my advice: drink coffee ahead of time, and pay attention like you are taking the SAT in highschool- that means focus on all of the names, and listen to every single word. Even after seeing the movie in its entirety I still don't think I could tell you the names of all of the main characters.

As stated prior, the acting in this movie was unparalelled. Gary Oldman's performance was truly enthralling, and I would certainly dub it Oscar-worthy. The cinematography was well-done to say the least and there were no overwhelming elements- what needed to be in this movie was in it, and nothing more. The scenes were perfectly composed, filled with everything that you would expect from a Soviet-British spy thriller. That is to say, groups of men having paranoid conversations in claustrophobic rooms while drinking whiskey and smoking, or out having solo, contemplative walks through dark streets and cloudy weather in European cities. I was not in a terrible amount of suspense considering that it is labeled a "spy thriller", but the end was satisfactory and the events leading up to it did keep me intrigued. I will definitely need to see it again in order to really grasp what was going on.

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