Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Tinker Tailor Solider Spy is apparently about how pointless the Cold War was, or what a drag it is to be a spy, which doesn't exactly make for an enjoyable movie. It was interesting about half the time, though, and Gary Oldman's performance was great.

I wasn't interested in this when it came out; or before I watched it, frankly. I heard it was supposed to be good, but it just seemed boring. It did turn out to be about 50% boring. There were some parts where the suspense or storyline kicked in and it got interesting, mostly because of Tom Hardy or Gary Oldman.

I've always liked Oldman, but parts of his performance here were riveting, like when he was talking about the time when he met Karla. I have no idea who Karla was - I'm guessing head of the KGB or something? The whole premise seems kind of pointless to me. "We have a mole." Okay, sure, that's bad. But then the idea that you have to find the mole, like it's so important...they're just going to get a new one in there.

The spy/intrigue thing as a whole seems pointless. Like when the Russians transferred money to Ricki to make it look like he was on their side. How do you know he wasn't? You don't, it's impossible to know. You just basically have to wait for the movie to tell you what's true and what's not; you can't figure anything out for yourself. I don't like things that can't be proven.

It was kind of funny that they made such a big deal of Oldman getting new glasses in the beginning. We didn't really need that to cue us in to the flashbacks. I kind of had "who are these people, what's going on?" problems throughout the movie. I don't think they made a very compelling case for why Bill switched sides. I did like that they explained why Bill was having an affair with Oldman's wife, though. I thought it was a little too convenient that the spy would also be the bad guy in that regard.

Somebody on IMDb said the movie "really conveys the feeling of obsolescence around the Cold War." I guess that's true, but it doesn't really make for an entertaining movie.