Oldman excels as the anti-Bond
Gary Oldman’s performance in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a thing of beauty. As British intelligence officer George Smiley he speaks his first words 17 minutes after the film begins. By then, though, you know almost everything there is to know about Smiley. That quality of acting, where a twitch of the jaw muscle or a baleful glance tells you more than a thousand lines of dialogue ever could, one would presume, is the toughest act to pull off in front of the camera. Oldman makes it look effortless.
Tinker Tailor, is a film adaptation of John Le Carre’s spy novel of the same name. Set in the 70s at the height of the Cold War it depicts a particularly paranoid time in the MI6’s history, when the agency was riddled with Russian double agents and no-one knew who to trust. In those grey corridors filled with mistrust and silent contempt, Smiley is asked to unmask a Russian mole at the top of the spy pyramid.
Smiley is the quintessential anti-Bond. Pot-bellied, taciturn and a cuckold, he is as deliberative as Bond is impulsive. A former British secret agent said of Bond that if he were real then he would be the worst spy around. Smiley is probably what spies really are like.
So will Oldman walk away with the Best Actor Oscar? Tough to say. The best actor line-up is quite accomplished this year. Also, the Oscars are notorious for rewarding histrionics rather than restraint. Al Pacino, for example, didn’t get the Oscar for probably the best performance of his life as a quiet and menacing Michael Corleone in Godfather 2. He did however, for his over the top turn as a blind war-veteran in Scent of a Woman. If Oldman truly does pick up the much coveted statuette, the Oscars will be straying from type.
Tinker Tailor is also up for two more awards, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score. Tinker Tailor is not an action packed movie. There’s no hand-to-hand combat, explosions or car-chases. However, it is a thriller that grabs your attention from the first scene and refuses to let go even as it tightens its grip on you. That is a function of Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan’s excellent screenplay and Alberto Igelsias’ haunting score. Yes the writers had John Le Carre’s novel as source material, but to make a detailed narrative about the internal machinations of a spy agency into a gripping thriller on screen takes some elevated writing chops and the two writers rise to the occasion admirably.
Gary Oldman’s performance in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a thing of beauty. As British intelligence officer George Smiley he speaks his first words 17 minutes after the film begins. By then, though, you know almost everything there is to know about Smiley. That quality of acting, where a twitch of the jaw muscle or a baleful glance tells you more than a thousand lines of dialogue ever could, one would presume, is the toughest act to pull off in front of the camera. Oldman makes it look effortless.
Tinker Tailor, is a film adaptation of John Le Carre’s spy novel of the same name. Set in the 70s at the height of the Cold War it depicts a particularly paranoid time in the MI6’s history, when the agency was riddled with Russian double agents and no-one knew who to trust. In those grey corridors filled with mistrust and silent contempt, Smiley is asked to unmask a Russian mole at the top of the spy pyramid.
Smiley is the quintessential anti-Bond. Pot-bellied, taciturn and a cuckold, he is as deliberative as Bond is impulsive. A former British secret agent said of Bond that if he were real then he would be the worst spy around. Smiley is probably what spies really are like.
So will Oldman walk away with the Best Actor Oscar? Tough to say. The best actor line-up is quite accomplished this year. Also, the Oscars are notorious for rewarding histrionics rather than restraint. Al Pacino, for example, didn’t get the Oscar for probably the best performance of his life as a quiet and menacing Michael Corleone in Godfather 2. He did however, for his over the top turn as a blind war-veteran in Scent of a Woman. If Oldman truly does pick up the much coveted statuette, the Oscars will be straying from type.
Tinker Tailor is also up for two more awards, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score. Tinker Tailor is not an action packed movie. There’s no hand-to-hand combat, explosions or car-chases. However, it is a thriller that grabs your attention from the first scene and refuses to let go even as it tightens its grip on you. That is a function of Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan’s excellent screenplay and Alberto Igelsias’ haunting score. Yes the writers had John Le Carre’s novel as source material, but to make a detailed narrative about the internal machinations of a spy agency into a gripping thriller on screen takes some elevated writing chops and the two writers rise to the occasion admirably.
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