Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Don't blink. Don't leave the room to attend to business with the television running. Hit the pause button. This is advice for those unfamiliar with the plot of John le Carré's TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY. There is a heck of a lot going on here, a basketful of characters and three major subplots introduced in the first two episodes of this six-episode mini-series. TINKER, TAILOR is a sinuous story of a mole in high places in the British Secret Service, also known as the Circus to insiders. Called out of retirement, a rather premature retirement, we learn, George Smiley (Alec Guinness) is called on to uncover the British official selling secrets to the Soviet enemies. In the interesting 2002 30-minute interview on disk one writer le Carré tells us that after the initially reluctant Guinness signed on everyone wanted to work on the project, and this mini-series is studded with great actors. Fortunately so, too, because this movie takes place around restaurant tables and in dingy `safe' houses more often than in exciting, exotic locales. This one belongs to actors who can deliver in tight close-ups much more so than to special effects wizards who can blow things up prettily. At the center of it is Guinness, who, in my opinion, is simply brilliant. In the interview le Carré mentions that Guinness was always shaving lines off the script, reducing his role, so to speak. Wasn't good at memorizing lines. There's more to it than that, though. Guinness approach is minimalist to practical non-existence. I probably won't be able to convey it, but somehow Guinness makes little to no impression. There aren't the stream of dramatic utterances, or even the little bits of business (fumbling with a tie, for instance) that most actors seem to love. Usually, the only time we see a real reaction is when a character has his back to Smiley/Guinness and mentions Smiley's wife Ann. Then the reaction, small enough, in context is powerful because it manages to break through the carefully crafted mask. Guinness realizes Smiley as a spy, a man who's genius is to make no impression, to cast no shadows and leave no clues. In lesser hands, which is pretty much anyone else you could mention, this approach would be unutterably bland, but Guinness's blandness is at times almost dazzling. The highest recommendation for this one.