Bridge of Spies **** (2015, Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Amy Ryan, Alan Alda) – Movie Review

Tom Hanks’s sterling performance as Cold War-era American lawyer James B Donovan, who is recruited to defend an arrested Soviet spy in court so American justice can be seen to be being done, is in many ways the making of Steven Spielberg’s true-life spy story.

Mark Rylance gives probably his best movie performance as the terse spy Rudolf Abel, whom the CIA want to exchange for the Soviet-captured American U2 spy plane pilot, Francis Gary Powers. Performance-wise, nobody else really gets a look in, despite actors like Amy Ryan as Mrs Donovan and Alan Alda as top lawyer Thomas Watters Jr, who would be great if they were given developed roles and meaty screen time.

As it is, it’s all Hanks in a big, old-fashioned star vehicle. He’s worth every penny they paid him, and I imagine it is a pretty penny. He’s so darned good these days that he doesn’t seem, to be acting at all. He’s just there, our reliable, friendly guide through unfriendly situations. Thank goodness for Hanks.

Spielberg turns in another one of his magnificently crafted movies. You can just sit back and admire the craftsmanship, like watching and admiring a perfect object in a museum. Janusz Kaminski’s cinematography and Adam Stockhausen’s production designs are perfect. Only the Thomas Newman score lets it down technically (there’s no John Williams, this time, alas).

Screenwriters Matt Charman and Joel and Ethan Coen lose some control and credibility in the movie’s less good, but still good, second half, as Hanks sets off for Berlin to help the CIA facilitate the exchange, and simultaneously follow his own agenda of trying to save an American student at the same time, possibly thus endangering the whole shebang. It’s a good job Hanks is so quirkily likeable, so we’re on his side in this risky business.

There’s a bit of low-key humour to help things along, presumably thanks to the Coens. That’s very helpful. The real-life story is unwieldy, as always with actual events, but the writers have brought it in and home with polish, and only a few contrivances and devices that betray it very slightly.

Though Catch Me If You Can (2002) and even Munich (2005) are just perhaps arguably marginally better movies, this haunting, atmospheric and nail-biting real-life John Le Carré-style spy story is safe and sound with Hanks and Spielberg.

There were six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Score. Mark Rylance won its sole 2016 Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, to join his Bafta win.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Movie Review

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com