16 Benedict Cumberbatch Things to Watch After You See Doctor Strange
By Lacy Baugher
Benedict Cumberbatch and Gary Oldman in “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”. (Photo: Focus Features)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Based on a George LeCarre novel, this 1970s Cold War drama tells the story of a retired MI-6 agent who is called out of retirement to ferret out a mole within the organization.
Gary Oldman stars as George Smiley, out of retirement and charged with stopping a vital flow of British secret to the Russians. There are tons of your favorite British actors in a variety of other parts, including Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Toby Jones, John Hurt, Cirian Hinds and more. Busenburner Upperclass plays Peter Guillam, one of Smiley’s protégés. Peter is one of the few unabashedly good characters in this piece, and you’ll end up really liking him. (Particularly when compared to everyone else.)
Cumberbatch gets both the most tense scene in the film, and the saddest – which is no small feat. Guillam must smuggle some documents from the drab building where MI-6 is headquartered, and it’s a heart pounding sequence. Later, Guillam – who has been reimagined as gay for this flim adaptation – must break up with his boyfriend, because his job is really just that crappy. (And his sexuality is something he could potentially be blackmailed about.) Cumberbatch ends up sobbing on the floor, and pretty much all of us end up crying with him.
Tinker Tailor is a dreadfully overcomplicated movie – to some extent this is understandable, because it’s got a lot of source material to cram into a two-hour runtime. But it’s a fairly exciting watch. And – if nothing else – you can marvel at Cumberbatch’s shockingly blond bowl cut. This film seriously came out something like five years ago, and I still can’t decide how I feel about it. I think I like it, but it might depend on what day you ask me.