Bridge of Spies

The last century brought us much turmoil in so many directions: two World Wars, AIDS , breast cancer and other hideous diseases, drugs out of control, divorce rates soaring, the Cuban Missile crisis, just to mention a handful. As we delve into different films based on true stories or events, we sometimes learn more about them than we knew before, as I believe we did with "Bridge of Spies". This story about a negotiation was something not overly publicized, by truly needed to be told.

In this historical dramatic account set during the Cold War, a Brooklyn attorney, James B. Donovan (Tom Hanks) is offered the task by his employer, Thomas Watters Jr. (Alan Alda) with the job of negotiating a prisoner exchange between an American U-2 pilot, Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell) who was shot down over the USSR territory and an accused Soviet spy, Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) serving a newly 45-year sentence for espionage against the U.S.
With mounting tensions in this country's fear of the Soviets and the surmounting expectations of a threat of WWIII, Donovan and his family including his wife, Mary (Amy Ryan) must endure prejudice from all perspectives for James' representation of an alleged Soviet spy. With Donovan running into pitfalls both here and in Germany, where the negotiations were to be held, not only Donovan's problems with the Soviet negotiator, Hoffman (Scott Shepherd) are strained, but here as well with his own people.

Others to round out the cast are Sebastian Koch as Wolfgang Vogel, Billy Magnussen as Doug Forrester, Donovan's assistant, Eve Hewson as Carol Donovan, James and Mary oldest child, Jesse Plemons as Joe Murphy, Will Rogers as Frederic Pryor, Peter McRobbie as Allen Dulles, Dakin Matthews as Judge Byers, Michael Gaston as Agent Williams, Edward James Hyland as Justice Warren, and Jillian Lebling and Noah Schnapp as Peggy and Roger, the Donovan's other children respectively.

This was effortlessly directed by Steven Spielberg ("Jaws" '75, "Raiders of the Lost Ark" '81, "The Color Purple" '85, "Jurassic Park" '93, "Schindler's List" '93, "Saving Private Ryan" '98, "Minority Report" '02, "The Terminal" '04, "Munich" '05, "War Horse" '11, "Lincoln" '12) plus many more too numerous to list. This is, yet again, another teaming of Spielberg and Hanks which combined is simply pure genius. These consummate pros work incredibly well together that it usually looks like you're watching someone live than act, which is an equal ingredient of directing and acting. This was equally well written by Matt Charman, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen. Even though the Coen Brothers have written many great films: "Fargo", "The Big Lebowski", "Burn After Reading", "Raising Arizona", this was a bit different in that it didn't have that quirkiness to it that they are best known for. The surprise here was with Matt Charman having only TV mini-series credits to his name. He, along with the Coen Brothers did an outstanding execution of this script. And this will certainly lend credence to Charman's talent in future feature films. And with the talents of cinematographer, Janusz Kaminski (Spielberg's photographer), and editor, Michael Kahn, ace, which Spielberg has used more than once, how could this film go wrong. The only missing ingredient was that of John Williams, who normally would compose all of Spielberg's films, however Thomas Newman created a great score.

This simply has it all: great direction, writing, acting--both Hanks and Rylance could be up for possible Oscar nods, with an awesome true story which makes great fodder for any screenwriter. One will learn something all the while being entertained by artistic craft, and isn't this the hallmark of any great caliber of film?

Out of 4 Stars: 4                                       Rated: PG-13                                    141mins.