Tinker, Tailor, Soldier...Fine

I have always loved spy novels. Cold War novels by John le Carre and Len Deighton. The stories about the Enigma cipher (WWII). Ken Follett wrote some good ones before he fell into historical triumph with Pillars of the Earth. The James Bond books were not so cartoonish as the films, but they weren't of this same gritty, realistic ilk. Most of the these I'm referring to weren't made into successful single films because they were too complex for a two-hour adaptation. BBC did a wonderful miniseries version of John le Carre's Smiley's People, one of the best of the genre. But films??

Now here comes Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, a 2011 sleeper that, from the look of the theater today, no one has heard about. You might have seen a mention in the Oscar nominations for Gary Oldman (yes, Sirius Black! and many other wonderful portrayals). And well deserved!

Oldman plays George Smiley, the aging MI-5 operative, put out to pasture after a disastrous operation gets an operative killed, and brings down George's mentor Control, the head of "the Circus" as the spy agency is called here. But a young agent (an excellent Benedict Cumberbatch of the new Masterpieces Sherlock series) has gotten wind of a rumor that could bring down the increasingly marginalized agency. Someone in the inner circle is a mole - a tool of the Russian spymaster known as Karla.

The file evokes the gritty (yes that word again) shadowy world of the 70s cold war. Hot wars were fought through surrogates, but the cold war was fought on the wet streets of East Berlin and Paris...and Budapest...and in the concrete block offices of London, each side hunting for intelligence - the kind that could only come through defectors or agents in place. Dangerous business. No flashy car chases. And in those days, no dazzling sensors or cell phones or laser beams or Mission Impossible impossibilities.

Oldman's performance is beautifully nuanced. He is a taciturn man. Serious, intellectual, but hopelessly enamored of a wife who is unfaithful. Hearing the reliable report of a mole--a double agent--in the highest echelon of his kingdom's secret service--men he has worked with--grieves him, yet he never says a word to convey it. A masterful performance. And the film spins back and forth in time and place, yet never needs labels to tell us when we are looking at a Christmas party in happier times for the agency or when we are in Budapest watching the fateful meeting and murder or when we are seeing the patient, dogged George unraveling a case for the ages. No being lowered from the roof, no pressure sensors, no leaps, just good work, and a great story. Loved it.

A great cast as well besides Oldman and Cumberbatch: John Hurt, Colin Firth, Ciaren Hinds, and a really excellent Tom Hardy
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Hot Days, Cool Films

When the hot days hit the Colorado front range, the spouse and I start looking for cool places to hide out in the late afternoon. We have air conditioning, but hate to turn it on for just a few hours a day. We're fortunate here to have cool nights and lovely mornings. Movie theaters work very nicely. I'll say we've seen three great summer movies.

The Dark Knight: the blockbuster of blockbusters. Enjoyed it very much. It is indeed dark. It is indeed well acted. Heath Ledger and Christian Bale - both excellent (though I still don't like his "Batman voice"), and who couldn't love Michael Caine's Alfred? Maggie Gyllenhal takes over the role of Rachel. I like her as an actress, but somehow she just didn't fit my image of a big city, assistant DA. Casting is so much more than ability. I've liked Aaron Eckhart since Erin Brockovich (though I do miss the earring!) He fit the role as the noble DA beautifully, but his story struck me as the weak spot. I'm just not sure I bought "what happened" to him. What I found the best was how the film addressed the moral dilemmas of the hero. I am looking forward to seeing the film again, which is always a good sign for me.

I might have enjoyed Iron Man just a little bit more. Robert Downey Jr was great as Tony Stark, the wealthy arms merchant captured by terrorists. Gwyneth Paltrow fun as girl Friday Pepper Potts, Jeff Bridges nicely patronizing as Tony's old friend and business partner. (Oh, Starman, how far you have fallen...) Was it the engineer as hero that made this a more "fun" film than the Dark Knight? Was it the complex, interesting relationships between these people? Sometimes excellent characters in a film don't "fit" together, but these did. I knew I was watching a comic book movie, but it was thoughtfully done without being grim. Robert Downey made Tony witty and smart and lovable and heroic all at once. I like smart.

And for the third film, maybe my favorite of the three?

It's got to be Wall-E. The Pixar folks have topped themselves with the tale of the diligent, sturdy robot left behind to clean up the garbage-smothered earth while the human population is off... Well, I really don't want to do spoilers. But I loved every minute of this film. Funny, beautiful, graceful - who would think a robot romance could result in the very definition of dancing? Good story. Unexpected heroes. Unbelievable detail in the animation. I particularly loved Wall-E's collection of interesting "stuff" he found as he worked. Can't recommend this enough. Of course, if you don't enjoy animation or such...well, as with all works of art - even books - to each his own opinion.

Still lots of films in the backlog, but these three will be keepers for my collection.


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In the Valley of Elah

Though this is as sad a film as I've seen in a long time, and the unfolding story of a young soldier's murder in his first week home from Iraq has no happy resolution, I found this not half so bleak as No Country For Old Men. The acting is supurb - especially Tommie Lee Jones again, as a father determined to discover the truth, and Charlize Theron as a civilian policewoman suffering the indignities of a female whose male colleagues believe she has slept her way into the detective division. This is a suspenseful and moving story of how "modern" warfare can affect the young people we send into combat, as well as the people back home.


A retired Army sergeant, who has already lost one son in modern war,gets a report that his younger son has gone AWOL on his first day back from his Iraq tour. When the young man doesn't show, the father drives down to the base to find him. It doesn't take long to learn that no one has seen the young man, and when a report comes into the police that a body has been found in a field, it is no surprise to the viewer that the worst has happened. Pushing, nudging, questioning, Jones's sergeant won't let the Army stonewall him or the civilian police drop a young man's death because of a "jurisdictional dispute." Theron's detective transforms her own depression into pity into action into indignation, as the father's determination shames her into action. As the higher-ups try to sweep the ugliness under the rug, the two follow the evidence - credit card receipts, disturbing clips from the dead man's cell phone, photos, flags... This is one that won't leave your consciousness for a long time. And it shouldn't.
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Enchanted

I was hoping for more from Enchanted, as it had gotten some decent reviews. The premise - a Disney cartoon happily-ever-after-wedding gone wrong so that the cheery bride climbs out of a manhole into live-action New York - was great, but they could have cut the saccharine by half and still had something kid-friendly. It felt as if someone was afraid they were going to come up with something original (pronounce that "unproven") and started picking "fantasy" elements off a shelf to throw them in: gloomy practical father, unworthy girlfriend, egotistical prince, cute motherless child, brave forest creature, wicked queen...come ON! And instead of using those things to give a truly different spin on the story - as that WAS the point - all they did was blunt the sharpest edges and make all the characters less interesting with less to actually DO. I liked the message that love needs to be based on more than one perfect kiss, but...ok, let's go behind the veil for spoilers...

...it would have been nice if they had given the heroine a MIND to go along with the message. Saying "oooh, I'm angry" and then giggling about it, does not equate with depth of character in my book - even in my fairy tale children's book!

Other beefs: I found the animated opening cute, but it went on way too long, as if the people lampooning the Cinderella bluebirds and instant true love secretly preferred the "old ways." I saw no basis for the attraction between the (now) ex-girlfriend and the prince, except that they were both leftovers. I couldn't decide what Nancy (isn't that always the name of the ex-girlfriend?) was supposed to be except Not Right for the hero - she liked museums, I think, and she liked it when Robert seemed spontaneous and romantic. The child was never used - except to "not like" Nancy and "like" Giselle. And to demonstrate that her father was an idiot - he gave her a book of strong women (like Madame Curie) instead of fairy tales. Now what message are we trying to get across here? How fun if the kid had wanted BOTH books!! Sigh. I love fairy tales, but the bits of danger and darkness make them richer - and just a FEW bits of intelligence can make them great.

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No Country For Old Men

Whew. Yes, as you've heard, this movie is well acted. Beautifully filmed. Well written. There are profound truths lurking behind all the blood and despair. But don't watch if you are squeamish about violence or require even the remotest sense that hope exists among the troubles of our times.

Based on Cormac McCarthy's novel of the same name, No Country of Old Men, winner of the Oscar for Best Picture (and a number of other Oscars) is the story of a drug deal gone bad. A formerly honorable welder and Vietnam vet comes across the results, including a couple of million dollars. Unable to resist, he takes the money and so moves himself into the path of Chigurh, a psychopathic murderer who sets out to obliterate anyone between him and the money...or anyone who looks at him...or anyone he encounters. Yes, he is the most relentless killer since the Terminator. But then, I didn't like anyone in this film. From the poor sap who took the money to the clerk at the motel. OK, there are a couple of innocent victims I could feel bad for, but they have a total of 21 seconds screen time.

Tommie Lee Jones plays a sheriff who believes that the evils of the world have gotten so awful, he's become obsolete. He's supposed to be the warm sympathetic voice of reason. But I got tired of homespun philosophy and his lack of urgency. OK, fella, get off your duff and call someone who will at least try to do something. I know law enforcement folk must get burned out and feel that they're not making progress. Just like anyone who sets themselves between the rest of us and the bad things that go on. I'm ok with realism, but I don't like places where there's no hope of things getting better. It may be true, but it's just not where I want to go for entertainment.
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A Fine Detective

I have always loved detective stories. From Jim Chee to Adam Dalgliesh to Lord Pete Wimsey to Dick Francis's marvelous amateur sleuths, I enjoy intelligent, interesting people using observation, instinct, and hard work to solving a crime. If you've read any of this blog, then you know that Unholy Alliance is an unabashed detective story only with magic and a Renaissance time frame and more levels of mystery than just one crime. So it is interesting that when I was visiting Chicago - well, more precisely, Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville, IL last summer - the fantasy/sf buyer gave me a mystery that she, having read and enjoyed my books, believed I would enjoy. I finally got around to reading it this week. The book was A Test of Wills by Charles Todd, and she was exactly right.

The year is 1919 and Ian Rutledge is a Scotland yard detective who lost his soul, his confidence, and, he fears, his mind in the trenches of France. He is newly returned to the force after treatment for shell shock - a matter he cannot share with others, as shell shock victims were considered irredeemable cowards. Nor dares he tell anyone that he still hears the voice of Hamish, one of his soldiers who died in one of the most hopeless, horrific battles of the war. (I'll let you read that dramatic bit of the story for yourself.) He has superiors who would prefer to be rid of him, thus they give him a seemingly no win case. Rutledge is a terrific, multi-layered character, and the murder is a wonderfully complex weaving of English village society and post-war upsets.

This is clearly a first novel. A few point-of-view hops annoyed me, and I'd have to re-read to see if there were sufficient clues laid down to the tricky solution to the case, but all in all it was very well done. I'll be reading more of Todd's (well it is actually a mother/son writing team) work. There are eight or nine other Ian Rutledge novels. Read more of this post!

Breath and Bone

First things first. My new baby is launched. Breath and Bone, the second and final volume of The Lighthouse Duet is out there as of 1/2/2008. My tenth novel, and I still can't quite believe I fell into this weird profession. Lots of writers claim not to care about reviews, but I can't believe it. Bad ones sting, and good ones give me a boost. And they shouldn't. I write for the love of it. The idea of a enchantment-addicted fellow who just wanted to have a good time and a warm bed and a bowl of hot something in his stomach getting caught up in the end of the world and the fae-like guardians of the earth just wouldn't stop nagging at me. But I really want others to enjoy his adventure, too.

Note that at the end of every post, you'll see a link that says "Read More of this post". So click on it, and...

... you'll see the end. Read more of this post!