2011 inspired a lot of movie-related fangirling. I mean, how could we help ourselves? Michael Fassbender had FOUR movies this year. Oh, and there was some other awesome stuff, too. And 2011 TV wasn’t too [...]]]> Yes, radio. Lady T lives in England and gets to listen to the BBC’s radio programs. How cool is that?

2011 inspired a lot of movie-related fangirling. I mean, how could we help ourselves? Michael Fassbender had FOUR movies this year. Oh, and there was some other awesome stuff, too. And 2011 TV wasn’t too shabby, either. Let’s talk about the audio-visual media that knocked our socks off in 2011.

Movies

TDF Pamela’s Picks

X-Men: First Class

X-Men: First Class

Captain America: The First Avenger

Captain America: The First Avenger

Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre

Amanda’s Picks

X-Men: First Class

X-Men: First Class

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Lady T’s Pick

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

TV

Lady T’s Pick

Doctor Who (series 6)

Doctor Who

Radio

Lady T’s Pick

Series 3 of Cabin Pressure (BBC Radio 4)

Cabin Pressure

Synopsis: Ridley Scott, director of ‘Alien’ and ‘Blade Runner,’ returns to the genre he helped define. With PROMETHEUS, he creates a groundbreaking mythology, in [...]]]> This week has been pretty amazing in terms of trailer releases. We got trailers/teasers for three of the movies I’m anticipating most for 2012. Let’s take a look at them.

Prometheus

Synopsis: Ridley Scott, director of ‘Alien’ and ‘Blade Runner,’ returns to the genre he helped define. With PROMETHEUS, he creates a groundbreaking mythology, in which a team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a thrilling journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race.
Cast: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green, Charlize Theron
Release date: 8 June 2012

Fangirl Says: OH MY GOD GUYS. I am so excited for this movie. And not just because of Michael Fassbender, honest. I love the first two movies in the Alien series (the third and fourth… eh). I especially love the claustrophobic horror of Ridley Scott’s original. So on top of Ridley’s return to SF/horror, we also have an amazing cast and some seriously atmospheric sets. I’m SO excited.

The Hobbit

Synopsis: The adventure follows the journey of title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers.

Although their goal lies to the East and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain first they must escape the goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature that will change his life forever…Gollum.

Here, alone with Gollum, on the shores of an underground lake, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths of guile and courage that surprise even him, he also gains possession of Gollum’s “precious” ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities … A simple, gold ring that is tied to the fate of all Middle-earth in ways Bilbo cannot begin to know.
Cast: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Graham McTavish, Andy Serkis, Christopher Lee, Benedict Cumberbatch, Hugo Weaving, James Nesbitt, Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lilly, Ian Holm, Elijah Wood, Cate Blanchett
Release Dates: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: 14 December 2012; The Hobbit: There and Back Again: 13 December 2013

Fangirl Says: I have two Lord of the Rings tattoos. Do I even need to say how excited I am for these movies? I’m pleased as punch that Peter Jackson was able to direct them, and the cast looks fan-freaking-tastic. Martin Freeman looks like the perfect Bilbo. Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield threw me for a loop when I first heard about it, but he looks awesome. And he sings. Guys. He’s singing Dwarven songs about the Misty Mountains. I may have just had a geekgasm.

The Dark Knight Rises

Synopsis: Every hero has a journey. Every journey has an end. Christopher Nolan returns to complete the epic Gotham trilogy that launched with Batman Begins and reached the stratosphere with the billion-dollar blockbuster The Dark Knight.

Batman is now hunted by the law led by his friend Commisioner Gordon for taking the blame of Harvey Dent’s murders and protecting his reputation. He must quickly deal with the arrival of new villain Bane who is bent on the destruction and chaos of Gotham City, face old wounds and get a handle on the enigmatic Selina Kyle before his city is lost for good.
Cast: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Morgan Freeman
Release Date: 20 July 2012

Fangirl Says: Every little bit of information that I get about The Dark Knight Rises just leaves me with more questions. What’s going on? What happened in those intervening eight years? Is Bane gonna do what he’s famous for doing in the comic books? Will Selina and Bruce get it on? Gah! Need more information!

The mini-geek, I should add, is only four but has adopted an early love of all [...]]]> This time last year I did a feature on my #1 Christmas essential movie, Bernard And The Genie. This year, at my mini-geek niece’s insistence, we are moving on to our seasonal second favourite, Scrooged.

The mini-geek, I should add, is only four but has adopted an early love of all things ‘scary’. With her mummy’s permission therefore we decided to embark on this holiday-appropriate tale of eyeballs in vodka, abusive fairies and Bill Murray doing that comic schtick he did so well before he decided to reinvent himself in drama.

Scrooged is, as you can guess by the title, a late-80s adaptation of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Frank Cross (Murray) is a mean-spirited, sadistic, TV network president. His unforgiving attitude and endless cynicism land him in trouble with the spirits of Christmas who set about showing him exactly where his life went wrong and where it’s all headed if he doesn’t change his ways.

So far, so expected. The movie however is jammed with beautifully dated 80s aspirational nonsense, from the black-ash furniture to the excitement over VCRs. It’s the decade of my childhood and I adore it in all its unrelenting yuppie awfulness. In fact that’s probably where my love for this film is really rooted. Sure, the ghosts are great (A repulsive taxi-drive into the past, a present-day fairy who clouts Frank around the face repeatedly with a toaster, and a seven-foot ghoul of the looming future) but really it’s all about the slapstick and nostalgia.

For my money, Murray is as good here as he ever was and, though it’s perhaps not as well remembered as Groundhog Day, it’s still excellent fun. Scrooged is not high-minded, but as far as contemporary(-ish) adaptations go the ‘Me, me, me’ decade has plenty of fodder for a really recognisable caricature of Scrooge without having to resort to making him genuinely nasty. He’s casually cruel and entirely self-absorbed, but also undeniably empty and unthinking. The transition into a better man is reasonably believable and Murry is utterly reprehensible but never entirely hateful.

The very tail end of the film may be painfully saccharine, but the final descent into cheese only happens after what’s been a genuinely entertaining journey and a ridiculously silly gun-point climax. It’s almost forgivable at that point. (Almost… but not quite.) Don’t let that deter you though. The final five minutes of agonising schmaltz are more or less what the fast-forward button was invented for, though as the mini-geek didn’t seem to mind we let it slide this time.

Karen Allen (Indiana Jones) is Murray’s lost love, and Alfre Woodard (Memphis Beat) his Cratchit-like secretary Grace, but you can also expect appearances from the inexplicable Bobcat Goldthwaite (Police Academy), Carol Kane (Annie Hall), Robert Mitchum and more bit-part cameos than you can shake a stick at. Though they are admittedly from people you probably don’t remember you’ve forgotten.

It’s a grand old nostalgia trip, and a good reminder of Bill Murray before he turned serious. You really can’t go too far wrong. Stick on the Christmas lights, grab the tinsel and enjoy the memory of holidays past… peppered liberally with brick-sized mobile phones.

Now they’ve made one for X-Men: First Class:

So. True.

First, there’s this gem:

Let’s see… can you spot the issue here? All the dudes are looking [...]]]> This will be a short post since I’ve thrown my neck out or something. But I had to take a moment to register my irritation with the promo material for the upcoming Marvel Studios film The Avengers.

First, there’s this gem:

Let’s see… can you spot the issue here? All the dudes are looking all dudely and superheroish, and Black Widow is giving us an ass shot. Because it doesn’t matter that Natasha is a highly trained assassin who could give any of the other Avengers a run for their money. It matters that Scarlett Johansson has a nice backside.

And she does. I’ll give credit where credit is due. She has a great ass. But why is hers the only nice ass featured in these promo pieces? I mean, Jeremy Renner has a gorgeous ass. So do Chris Hemsworth and Robert Downey, Jr, and Chris Evans. I’ve never seen Mark Ruffalo’s ass, but I’m sure it’s pretty tasty, too.

My point in all this ass ranting is that Marvel is catering to the lowest common denominator here. Oh look! There’s a chick in this movie! Quick, put her in a skintight suit and show off her ass! What, is she going to scare off the 13-30 year old males in the audience otherwise? Can’t have a tough heroine without making her into wank bank material?

To be clear, I have no problem with female characters being sexy. It’s when things take a turn for the exploitative that I get annoyed. C’mon, Marvel. Either present Black Widow as a member of the team who doesn’t have to show off her ass to be a valuable character, or show off everyone’s asses.

This little gem is “Avengers Booty Ass-emble” by kevinbolk on DeviantArt. If we can’t trust Marvel to not exploit the lovely asses of its female characters, at least we can make fun of them with fan art.

Guys, I got teary when Katniss volunteered to take Primrose’s place. I love the book series, and while I’m always cautious when going into a movie adaptation [...]]]> I’ve been remiss in talking about the upcoming movie based on Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games, but the full trailer is out, so let’s have a fangirl moment.

Guys, I got teary when Katniss volunteered to take Primrose’s place. I love the book series, and while I’m always cautious when going into a movie adaptation of a book I love, I’m pretty excited about this one. The cast looks amazing, especially Jennifer Lawrence. I thought she was brilliant in X-Men: First Class, and judging by this trailer, it looks like she’s going to be really good as Katniss.

Are you guys excited about The Hunger Games? What do you think of the trailer?

When I was fifteen years old, something rather strange happened to me.

I became obsessed with Freddy Krueger. I’m not sure what prompted it. I know [...]]]> Happy Halloween, fangirls and fanboys! Tis the season for spooky cinema, so let’s talk horror movies. What is your favorite creepy film to watch when Halloween rolls around?

Kerry

When I was fifteen years old, something rather strange happened to me.

I became obsessed with Freddy Krueger. I’m not sure what prompted it. I know I had a sleepover with about three friends and watched both the original Friday the 13th (unimpressive) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (flaw-free). I wasn’t the same after that.

Constant high school visits to Six Flags: Fright Fest involved wandering around with a friend, calling out for Freddy and then when a worker dressed in the fedora, red and green sweater and knifed gloves appeared, we giggled madly as if we had just run into a Backstreet Boy. We were weird teenagers.

But I didn’t care! I loved everything about this movie: the atmosphere, the teenagers, the Final Girl, the murders and of course, Freddy Krueger. It’s still my favorite slasher movie and therefore, a Halloween staple.

Freddy Krueger, at this point, is so ingrained in pop culture as a wisecracking smartass, it’s easy to forget that in his very first appearance, he was essentially a grim, decidedly unfunny, shadowy nightmare. There are no clear shots of Freddy and rather than being a straight slasher film, the murders occur in nightmarish dream sequences, the best of which is the reappearance of the first victim, Tina, in a body bag in a high school hallway.

Nancy, played by Heather Langenkamp, is one of the strongest, if not the strongest, Final Girl to ever outwit the killer in a slasher movie. According to Carol J. Clover, in her somewhat dated but still worth checking out book Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film, the Final Girl is masculine (in an effort for the typically male audience to identify with her) and possesses an “active investigating gaze” (48). Nancy, though she does shun sexual activity (sex = death) and reads a survivalist book to beat Freddy, she is still feminine. She’s identifiable, intelligent and determined to win. She’s a great heroine and Langenkamp deserves a great deal of praise. She recently created the documentary, I Am Nancy, which explores why Freddy became a beloved character while Nancy, the hero, was thrust into the background. My theory? Simply sexism. The wisecracking male serial killer is more interesting to the general public than the intelligent, levelheaded female would-be victim. When I was fifteen, I was guilty of this too. Now, I have a newly found appreciation for Nancy and an intense desire to see this film.

Until I get a hold of it, I just have the first and third Nightmare on Elm Street films, the best of the series, for this Halloween. Don’t fall asleep!

TDF Pamela

I’m not much of a horror movie fan. I love creepy books and I really dig movies with a lot of psychological fear involved, but what puts me off of most horror film is the gore. To say I dislike gory movies is a terrible understatement. I frigging hate slasher flicks and torture porn. For me, being grossed out is not the same as being scared. I like to jump out of my skin, but I really don’t like having to cover my eyes because someone’s guts are being ripped out. (I can tolerate bloody movies, but the moment guts are involved, the deal is off.)

So when my fiancé and I combined our movie collections, I balked when I saw that he has a copy of The Descent. I didn’t know much about the movie, just that it involved a group of women, a cave, and all kinds of scary shit. I let him talk me into watching it, though, after getting his solemn oath that the movie was not a slasher gore-fest.

Imagine my surprise when I ended up really liking it. Beware spoilers for The Descent!

The Descent is about six women who reunite a year after a terrible car accident took the lives of one woman’s husband and daughter. They head into the Appalachian wilderness to go cave exploring, but things begin to go horribly wrong after a tunnel collapse traps them in a cave network that’s inhabited by something that’s decidedly not human.

One thing I liked about The Descent is how quiet it is. I don’t mean quiet as in volume, but rather the low-key way that the actors and the director approached the subject matter. I’m rather claustrophobic, so even the basic premise of this movie is nightmarish for me. When fear and claustrophobia start to affect the characters, I was right there with them, and I appreciate that their psychological breakdowns weren’t particularly melodramatic. Each woman slipped down that slope at her own pace, some of them holding onto sanity until the end while others started to freak out early on.

Another thing that I liked is that all of the major characters are women. In most of the horror movies I’ve watched, women tend to occupy a couple of well-defined roles: the slutty victim or the Final Girl (which Kerry discussed above). None of the characters in The Descent were sacrificial sluts or virginal heroines who escape thanks to their virtue. We admittedly don’t get much background on more than two or three characters in The Descent, but each character had her own particular feel and personality, and you get attached to them. It’s not a movie where you’re looking for the next creative way for someone to die. It’s a movie where you’re genuinely afraid for the characters and are affected by their deaths.

I don’t think The Descent is particularly gory, but it is bloody. There are some gory scenes, but it was within my tolerance level. The effing scariest parts for me were toward the beginning, just after they realize that they’re trapped and that Juno, their guide, has taken them into an unexplored cave instead of the nice, familiar, mapped cave system they thought they were going into. It’s dark and dangerous, and Sarah (the woman who lost her family and still hasn’t quite gotten over it yet) thinks she sees something out there in the dark. Between the paranoid fear and the physical danger they’re constantly in, I was a ball of nerves.

Which brings me to my main criticism of The Descent. I really wish they hadn’t shown the slimy, cannibalistic baddies so early in the film. Or better yet, I wish the slimy, cannibalistic baddies weren’t even in the film. I think it could have been so much scarier if it had veered away from the traditional horror monster route and had just played upon the psychological breakdown of the characters. Hallucinations and paranoia could have been more effective in creeping me the hell out. The cannibal creatures were gross and scary, to be certain, but this goes back to my preference for psychological horror. I’d rather see the women all slowly lose their minds and turn on each other (which happens to an extent) rather than fight against an actual monster.

But even with that complaint, I thought the movie was very creepy and really nicely made. The use of light was particularly good. Many movies that are supposed to take place in the dark look too well-lit. I know you have to see the actors, but at the same time, it’s just not as creepy when you can see everything around you in a cave. For the most part, The Descent is extremely dark, and you only see what the characters can see in their immediate surroundings. You can tell it’s on a shoestring budget, but it’s not bothersome. The simplicity of it actually works quite well.

Seriously, there are big spoilers for the end of the movie after this point.

And finally, let’s talk about my favorite part of the movie: the ending. When the movie was released in American theatres, the ending was trimmed, so if you’ve only seen the American theatrical version, you’re missing out. The unrated DVD version has the original British ending, and I think it was brilliant. In the American version, you see Sarah claw her way out of the cave after crippling and abandoning Juno to the monsters. She runs to her car and drives for a while, then pulls over to get sick and sits up to see a blood-streaked Juno sitting in the car at her side.

In the British ending, you find out that her escape is just a dream. At various points in the movie when Sarah is under extreme stress, she sees a birthday cake in the darkness, perhaps a memory of her dead daughter’s last party. After the shock of seeing Juno in the car, we’re back in the cave. Sarah is kneeling, reaching toward the hallucination of the birthday cake and her daughter, and the camera pulls back to show us that she’s still trapped underground. She’s lost her sanity, and you can pretty much bet that there’s no hope for her to escape the cave.

It’s bleak. But the bleakness is what I like so much about it. The American cut ending plays into our expectations. She’s escaped, and even though there are still nightmarish things going on, she’s at least out of the cave. I like having my expectations fucked with, though, and by having that escape as a dream or a hallucination, we get a little taste of what we expect to happen only to have it snatched away. I loved that. Absolutely loved it.

Description: A gritty, white-knuckle, action ride set in the near-future where the sport of boxing has gone high-tech, Real Steel stars Hugh Jackman as Charlie Kenton, a washed-up fighter who lost his chance at a title when 2000-pound, 8-foot-tall steel robots took [...]]]> Real Steel: Written by John Gantis, Directed by Shawn Levy

Description: A gritty, white-knuckle, action ride set in the near-future where the sport of boxing has gone high-tech, Real Steel stars Hugh Jackman as Charlie Kenton, a washed-up fighter who lost his chance at a title when 2000-pound, 8-foot-tall steel robots took over the ring. Now nothing but a small-time promoter, Charlie earns just enough money piecing together low-end bots from scrap metal to get from one underground boxing venue to the next. When Charlie hits rock bottom, he reluctantly teams up with his estranged son Max (Dakota Goyo) to build and train a championship contender. As the stakes in the brutal, no-holds-barred arena are raised, Charlie and Max, against all odds, get one last shot at a comeback.

This review is based on a theatrical viewing I paid for myself

Lady-T’s review:
Put aside for a moment the fact that the concept is kind of like a dramatised version of an episode of Robot Wars, the problem with Real Steel is not that it’s bad, because it isn’t. It’s just that it’s not particularly good either.

But, and here’s the real crux of the matter… it’s sort of weirdly entertaining regardless.

I’ll be frank; I didn’t love it. It rather falls into that void of “Eh” in which I found myself not overly caring much about it either way. Which considering that Hugh Jackman and I have enjoyed a decade-long cinematic romance kind of hurts me to say, but there it is. Oh, sure, it’s amiable enough, and cheesy (Lord, is it ever cheesy) but it rolls along at a decent pace and even the most cynical of my viewing partners left the screening with a smile on their face.

Alright, they were probably smiling for all the wrong reasons (it was a bemused, slightly mocking smile, these are not people who enjoy morally uplifting plot-points on their own merit,) but the general audience seemed pretty happy and for round these parts that’s substantially better than other movies have fared. There’s nothing particularly special about Real Steel, but if you enjoy shiny robots beating into other shiny robots, served up along side a father-son redemption plot, all whisked in with some underdog Vs corporate greed and boomy loud rock music… well, it’ll help while away a wet Wednesday in a pleasant sort of manner.

More honestly, however, the whole thing really just felt… lazy.

I know, given the genre, the sporting underdog, you don’t expect a whole lot of originality. But with Real Steel you can pretty much count the beats –They’re in there between all the product placement– and I defy you to find any point at which you don’t know exactly what’s coming. Perhaps with the exception of a couple of facepalm-inducingly twee dance routines which were, coincidentally, the point at which my companions all agreed there is absolutely no way you can take any of this film even remotely seriously.

The only person who really fares well out of this bizarre genre soup is Dakota Goyo (playing Max) in one of those rare child-actor performances that remains mercifully free of the whiff of precocious stage-school brat. Hugh Jackman on the other hand, just needed a couple of slices of bread around him and he would have made a pretty substantial ham and cheese sandwich all on his own.

The extent of his contribution seems limited to propping up some scenery while phoning in the rest of his performance. It would not be a lie to say I was more disappointed by this peculiarly disengaged by-the-numbers appearance than by any particular weakness in the script. It is, shall we say, not his best work. In playing the charming-but-unreliable-jerk there’s not much here that you haven’t seen him do before in other, earlier films. His character of Charlie is almost awkwardly reminiscent of hacker Stanley Jobson in the action-thriller Swordfish, maybe with a little hint of Wolverine thrown on top for good measure. Holding it up against his performance in films like The Prestige or The Fountain, it feels like a regressive step backwards.

It has all the Jackman shorthand acting tics, up to and including the constipated turtle face that stands in for deep emotion when nothing more involved is forthcoming. This is, perhaps, what makes it so very frustrating for me when the rest of the audience seemed to quite happily enjoy themselves. I didn’t expect too much of Real Steel, it kind of is what it is, and I got exactly what I anticipated. It’s reasonably entertaining and ultimately disposable. The most disappointing thing is that almost everyone involved should have been capable of better.

Reviews Elsewhere

• Film4
• Empire
• The Guardian
• Time Out

Description: Adapted from the John le Carré novel, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is the story of George Smiley (Gary Oldman), a recently retired MI6 agent still trying to adjust to a life outside the secret service.

When [...]]]> Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: Written by Bridget O’Connor & Peter Straughan, Directed by Tomas Alfredson

Description: Adapted from the John le Carré novel, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is the story of George Smiley (Gary Oldman), a recently retired MI6 agent still trying to adjust to a life outside the secret service.

When a disgraced spy reappears carrying information concerning a double agent at the heart of MI6, Smiley is pulled out of retirement and drawn back into the world of espionage he has only just left. Tasked with finding out which of his former colleagues has chosen to betray their country, Smiley finds evidence that narrows his search to four suspects – all experienced, trusted agents – but past histories, rivalries and friendships make it difficult to pinpoint which man has the motivation to eat away at the heart of The Circus.

This review is based on a theatrical viewing paid for myself

Lady-T’s Review:

If I had to describe Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy in three words, they would be these: Evocative. Moody. Complex.

None of these are bad things, but I will be honest. Comparatively speaking, it’s not always an easy film to get your teeth into. It’s something of an antidote to the explosions and effects of the Bournes and Bonds of the spy genre, and it’s fair to say that it hinges on a level of unspoken subtlety that outright demands concentration from its audience. It is not the most emotive of films, nor is it always the simplest to follow. Reams of understanding are conveyed with subtle shifts of expression and barely-there nods which combined with the sparse and somewhat bleak cinematography make the flashes of real emotion, when they do finally shine through, all the more shocking for their intensity. It could be argued that it’s actually a bit of a slog, but I personally found it more than worth the effort.

It has a fantastic cast serving up uniformly nuanced performances, supported brilliantly by a richness of period detail that gives it a very definite sense of location and time. There are a plethora of tiny, incidental cultural references just neatly tucked into its scenery and I’ll admit to watching some of it in a bizarre haze of nostalgia for a decade I never actually lived through. There are some beautifully deft touches, like the old clear-sided red phone boxes and the wrapping on Smiley’s roll of Trebor mints, the latter of which had been lovingly restored to the green it was before four decades of re-branding interceded.

That said, it is not exactly the shiniest, nor prettiest of films. But then neither was it a shiny or especially pretty decade. The perpetual, looming threat of the Cold War suffuses it with chilly grottiness, peppered occasionally with sporadic sharp bursts of unflinchingly graphic cruelty. It is tremendously evocative and bleak and director Tomas Alfredson (Let The Right One In) has crafted from it a grand study of slow-building complexity. The climax itself is somehow all the more unbearably tense for the knowledge that there is no final explosion looming to relieve the pressure, just a very cleverly manipulated, intelligent sense of menace.

The original book is, of course, notoriously complex and difficult to adapt. Being unfamiliar with the original I can’t comment on what aspects have been excised but I felt that what was presented here made a cohesive and coherent stand-alone narrative. There are a couple of points I would have appreciated more clarification on but, considering the desperately convoluted nature of the book, I thought it was handled admirably.

I’m sure there will be some who could argue (justifiably, perhaps) that the film is slow almost to the point of torpor. It’s not entirely without validity, but what it purposefully lacks in physical spectacle it more than makes up for in leaping cerebral gymnastics. It’s not a film you can easily nip out in the middle of. Though with a cast like this why would you even want to?

Gary Oldman (Hannibal, Batman Begins) makes retired career spy Smiley very much his own; unreadable, pragmatic and almost terrifyingly calm even as he faces the spectre of taking apart the very institution he has spent his whole life working to protect. David Dencik is wonderfully prissy as the snivelling Esterhase while, fresh off the back of his Oscar for The King’s Speech, Colin Firth infuses the character of Haydon with an almost frighteningly appealing, laissez faire variety of easy charm.

In all honesty though it’s Guillam, played by Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, Third Star) that most perfectly compliments and contrasts against Oldman’s purposefully opaque rendering of Smiley. Both he and Inception star Tom Hardy are predominantly responsible for shouldering the emotional load of the film. Playing a younger generation less inured to repression it is only through them that the personal sacrifices made by their superiors can even be slightly reflected. Guillam’s inner conflict and his struggle to reconcile his loyalties with his ideals is quietly but powerfully conveyed. The scene where he is forced to push away his lover, for example, is a brief but heartbreaking dissolve from professional exterior to the rawness of the human cost smothered underneath it, and though the scene may be short, in context it is incredibly effective.

Toby Jones (Christopher And His Kind), Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes) and Ciarán Hinds (Rome) are all as dependable as you would expect and it’s great to see Kathy Burke (Nil By Mouth) back on the screen again, along with a brief appearance by John Hurt (Hellboy) as the increasingly paranoid Control.

As I said, it’s not the easiest viewing, but I think it’s ultimately rewarding and a perfect cure for the times when you’ve had more than enough of shiny explosive movies that go boom.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is on general release in the UK right now, and opens in the US on the 9th December

Reviews Elsewhere

• The Independent
• The Guardian
• The Telegraph
• Variety
• Time Out