Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Directed by: Tomas Alfredson

Written by: Bridget O'Connor (screenplay), Peter Straughan (screenplay), John le Carré (novel)

I reviewed the original novel here not too long ago, so I won't bother mentioning a plot summary. Let's just move straight into analysis here.

Going into it, I was worried that the running time of the film would require huge chunks of the novel to be truncated. The screenwriters did a fantastic job of keeping the core story together while making only minor alterations to the side stories. Aside from opening the film with what happened on the operation in Hungary (which is not revealed until near the end of the novel), the most important elements of the story were kept almost entirely intact.

The acting performances are all superb. Gary Oldman is excellent as George Smiley, though the character is intended to be mild-mannered and quiet. All of the supporting cast, such as Tom Hardy and Benedict Cumberbatch, really shine in their smaller parts.

Some of the symbolism, especially the bloody tear drop at the end, was a bit heavy-handed.

I did have one major blind spot in regards to this film - I'd already read the novel, so I knew what was going on. The major criticism I've heard in regards to this film is that so much of what goes on is very subtle that it becomes very hard to follow. I was able to follow it fine, but I can see where it might have been confusing for those not already familiar, especially in regards to the Ricki Tarr flashbacks and the sting operation at the end. There are also many tertiary characters - such as Bland, Alleline, and that bunch - whose roles and jobs are much more clear in the novel but are inserted in the film with little to no explanation.

It's nice to see a good spy film that doesn't resort to James Bond style action. The ideas of espionage and double-agents have fallen into darkness when it comes to spy stories. It was nice to see them revived.

Overall, I'd recommend this film. It's a bit long, but well worth it, if only for Oldman and Hardy's performances.

The Men Who Stare at Goats

Tagline: "No Goats, No Glory."

Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor), a small-town journalist desperately trying to impress his estranged wife, travels to the Middle East to cover the Iraq War. On his way, he runs into Lyn Cassady (George Clooney), who reveals that he's a psychic soldier on a secret mission. Turns out, as Cassady explains, that in the 1980s the Army trained a whole unit - the New Earth Army - to use new age strategies to fight the wars of the future, led by Bill Django (Jeff Bridges). But, alas, a power struggle ensues with one trooper, Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey), fracturing the group. Using his psychic mind and intuition, Cassady leads himself and Wilton to a secret base in the middle of the Iraqi desert. Apparently, after the New Earth Army was dismantled, Hooper founded a Blackwater-style group and is making major money launching psychic warfare. Ultimately, Cassady and Django decide to sabotage Hooper's operation by spiking all the food with LSD and then they go riding off into the sunset, never to be seen again and leaving Wilton to try to report the strange tale.

This movie is good. Not great, but good. But, if it isn't already evident, the movie is hard to explain in conventional terms as well. It isn't quite fiction, but it isn't quite non-fiction either. (The opening title states "More of this is true than you would believe.") For a movie that seems to drag on at points, it is surprisingly short.

The hazy gray middle area that this movie occupies is ultimately what held it back. Cassady is so strange, crazy, and off-the-wall that I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to laugh at his absurdist ideas or to pity him for his disconnection from reality. At times the movie is artistic journalism, self-discovery journey, road trip, social commentary, and comedy. None of these are necessarily exclusive from one another, but too many of them packed into just shy of 90 minutes pulled my mind around too much. There were even just a few too many big-name actors thrown into such a short script. (And, I'm not complaining, but it seems like Jeff Bridges can now only play "the washed-up ________ trying to redeem himself." Insert "hippie" for this movie, "country singer" for "Crazy Heart," and, probably, video game programmer for the new "Tron.")

Despite my final confusion, I can easily say that I enjoyed watching the movie. All of the leads - Clooney, McGregor, Bridges, Spacey - were fantastic, dynamic characters. The rich colors of the sets and scenes gave a sense of being just on the edge of reality, without falling away to fantasy. The best comparison I can think of is that this movie is like a grilled hamburger - good on its own, but a few more spices could have made it much better.

Directed by: Grant Heslov

Written by: Peter Straughan (screenplay) and Jon Ronson (book)