Review #973: 'Bridge of Spies' (2015)

Steven Spielberg's latest exercise in good ol' fashioned American wholesomeness, integrity and diplomacy transports us back to 1957, where undercover KGB agent Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) is about to be busted by the FBI under suspicion of passing secrets onto the Soviets. The idealistic man at the centre of the story is James B. Donovan, an insurance lawyer working in Brooklyn who joins the likes of John Quincy Adams, Oskar Schindler and Abraham Lincoln on the list of great, conflicted men caught up in a difficult period of upheaval and portrayed by Spielberg in an admiring light. And who better to play a man of such a clear sense of morality than Hollywood's favourite nice-guy Tom Hanks?

Working with frequent collaborator Janusz Kaminski, Bridge of Spies is about a good-looking as a film gets. Infused with the same eye for detail and greyed-down solemnity of Lincoln (2012), the backdrops on show provide the perfect location for serious men talking serious business. The main crux of the film rests in the blossoming friendship between Donovan and Abel, who are captured on an equal par in a bleak interrogation room as the sun blazes through the blinds. These are two men from opposing sides, but share the share the same determination, stubbornness, and loyalty to the ideals of their country. Abel accepts his increasingly-likely execution as one of the requirements of his job, but Donovan wants to exercise his rights as a PoW, making himself public enemy number one in the process as his face splashes across the newspapers.

Donovan also hopes to keep him as a tool should the need for a prisoner exchange rear its head in the future, which was incredible foresight for anyone who knows the true-life story. As Donovan fights for Abel in the courtroom, the United States are prepping their own mission - to send a spy plane over the Soviet Union to take photographs. Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell) is shot down and, after failing to swallow the cyanide given to him by his commanding officer in case he finds himself in such a perilous position, is taken prisoner by the Soviets and routinely tortured for information. The U.S. government again turn to Donovan in the hope of setting up an exchange just as American student Frederic Pryor (Will Rogers) is also arrested.

For a story so littered with intrigue and espionage, Bridge of Spies is oddly lacking in thrills and tension. When Donovan arrives for the exchange in Berlin as the Wall is being put in place, the city is hostile and seemingly lawless in areas, but instead the film focuses on the various bizarre characters, including a Petter Lorre-alike KGB man, who flock around Donovan, a man they simply do not know. Perhaps the unevenness in tone is down to a script-polishing by Joel and Ethan Coen, who never shy away from taking a genre and stamping their own particular brand of humour on it. Spielberg also cannot resist resorting to sentiment at the film's climax on the eponymous 'bridge of spies' (Glienicke Bridge). Still, this is Spielberg at his most professional, harking back to classic Hollywood while maintaining the relevance of the films themes.


Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Alan Alda, Amy Ryan, Austin Stowell, Scott Shepherd
Country: USA/Germany/India

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie