On Movies: Smiley's world, dark, cold, redolent of tweed

'I've been waiting 25 years to plays this part," Gary Oldman says of George Smiley, the tamped-down British secret agent who emerges from retirement to root out a mole in the John le Carré classic Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

But Oldman, who gives an Oscar-worthy performance as the brilliant, and brilliantly inscrutable Smiley in the just-released adaptation, is not just referring to the character - he's talking about the character type, too. After years of outsized roles as villainous nutjobs and larger-than-life figures (The Fifth Element, The Professional, Dracula), the English actor finally gets to play someone reflective, reserved.

"I think of a soft pedal on the piano," Oldman explains, on the phone from New York. "George Smiley is pianissimo, and a lot of the characters I've played are fortissimo . . . .

"It's an interesting exercise, really, to play a character who motors the movie, who drives the thing, but yet from a very passive, very restrained and quiet position, rather than some of the characters I've played where they tend to physicalize their emotions . . . . They're bigger than life, they're almost like cartoon characters. So this one is very much reality-based. It required a different set of skills."

Directed by Tomas Alfredson, the Swede responsible for the haunting Let the Right One In vampire picture, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - which is now at the Ritz East and Rave Motion Pictures at the Ritz Center/NJ - is a complicated tale of Cold War espionage. The atmosphere is similarly cold - and gloomy and dark.

"It's grays and browns and oranges and nicotines and cold tea," Oldman says. "Tomas and his director of photography, Hoyte Van Hoytema, discussed the look of the movie, of course, but funnily enough they spent more time discussing its smells. Tomas said he wanted to capture the essence of damp tweed."

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy also stars Colin Firth, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hardy, Ciarán Hinds - a daunting lineup of British stage and screen talents. They shot in London, and they had the privilege - and the pressure - of having le Carré himself on the set.

"We had his blessings," Oldman says of Smiley's creator. "There have been other films made from his books, and there are a few of them he doesn't like - and he's not shy in coming forward . . . he's very forthright. But he thought that the adaptation of this was fantastic."