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"And I wasn't there, what would you think of him then? If Bill were not my cousin, not my anything? Tell me. Would you think more of him, or less?"
I was at first a little skeptical when I heard of the new Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. The BBC miniseries is so very good, after all, and I am heartily sick of Hollywood remakes. But the cast was excellent, and the trailers good, and it grew on me, until I was very excited to see it tonight.
It's an outstanding film. The cast is phenomenal. The pacing is so slow as to be anti-Hollywood, while never being wrong. There is a lot less dialogue than the BBC version, but instead of it being replaced with gunfights or car chases or explosions, you have to...watch actors act. An idea so crazy it just might work! It has fewer--I repeat, fewer--car chases than the BBC. It also did the one thing I most wanted it to: left me madly in love with Benedict Cumberbatch.*
But...of course there's a but. And now I'm not entirely sure my but is valid. From the book and the miniseries, I am left with an image of Ann Smiley. Not a flattering one, perhaps, nor a long-seen one, but an image. Maybe it's just because I read the passage quoted above about twenty times whilst coding copies of the book for the scavenger hunt. But that passage is there, and it's important, and Ann says it, flashback or not. But in this new version, Ann is much more a negative space. There is an actress playing her, but the character is a plot point, a game piece, not a person. I don't believe she has a single line of dialogue.
I left the theatre angry--not quite as viciously angry as at SH:aGoS, but close. But now I'm not sure if I haven't attributed more personhood and agency to the character than was actually there. But even if I am, Tomas Alfredson** and the writers could have fleshed her out more, too, instead of the opposite. (They added bonus queerness where there was none in the book, after all.) For a character who twines so thoroughly through everything, even offscreen, I would like some there there.
I think I need to watch the BBC version and read the book again, and then decide how angry I want to be. And then write something that contains both women and spies.
* I went in thinking Well, he's pretty, but can he be a dragon, let alone mydragon? I'm now willing to let him be any dragon he wants.
** Between this and Let The Right One In, I'm pretty smitten with his directing.
I was at first a little skeptical when I heard of the new Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. The BBC miniseries is so very good, after all, and I am heartily sick of Hollywood remakes. But the cast was excellent, and the trailers good, and it grew on me, until I was very excited to see it tonight.
It's an outstanding film. The cast is phenomenal. The pacing is so slow as to be anti-Hollywood, while never being wrong. There is a lot less dialogue than the BBC version, but instead of it being replaced with gunfights or car chases or explosions, you have to...watch actors act. An idea so crazy it just might work! It has fewer--I repeat, fewer--car chases than the BBC. It also did the one thing I most wanted it to: left me madly in love with Benedict Cumberbatch.*
But...of course there's a but. And now I'm not entirely sure my but is valid. From the book and the miniseries, I am left with an image of Ann Smiley. Not a flattering one, perhaps, nor a long-seen one, but an image. Maybe it's just because I read the passage quoted above about twenty times whilst coding copies of the book for the scavenger hunt. But that passage is there, and it's important, and Ann says it, flashback or not. But in this new version, Ann is much more a negative space. There is an actress playing her, but the character is a plot point, a game piece, not a person. I don't believe she has a single line of dialogue.
I left the theatre angry--not quite as viciously angry as at SH:aGoS, but close. But now I'm not sure if I haven't attributed more personhood and agency to the character than was actually there. But even if I am, Tomas Alfredson** and the writers could have fleshed her out more, too, instead of the opposite. (They added bonus queerness where there was none in the book, after all.) For a character who twines so thoroughly through everything, even offscreen, I would like some there there.
I think I need to watch the BBC version and read the book again, and then decide how angry I want to be. And then write something that contains both women and spies.
* I went in thinking Well, he's pretty, but can he be a dragon, let alone mydragon? I'm now willing to let him be any dragon he wants.
** Between this and Let The Right One In, I'm pretty smitten with his directing.
