BRIDGE OF SPIES – The Review

By Cate Marquis

The Cold War spy drama BRIDGE OF SPIES is Steven Spielberg’s best film in years. This Oscar-bait film, based on the real events around the American U-2 pilot was shot down and captured over Soviet Russian airspace, features a script co-written by Joel and Ethan Coen, a cast headed by Tom Hanks and Mark Rylance, the renowned British actor some audiences might know from the BBC’s bloody historical drama series “Wolf Hall” that played on PBS, and photography by the Oscar-winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, whose past films include “Schindler’s List,” “Saving Private Ryan” and “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.”

All that talent comes together in the perfect blend to create a highly entertaining film. The film is set in the late ’50s-early ’60s Cold War, the period between the Commie-hunting hysteria of the McCarthy era and the Cuba Missile Crisis. BRIDGE OF SPIES dramatizes two interconnected spy cases, the less-remembered “hollow nickel” case in which suspected Soviet spy Rudolf Abel was caught in New York and then tried for espionage. The second case is the famous U-2 spy plane incident, in which American pilot Francis Gary Power was shot down over Russian airspace and was held as a spy. While officially denying Powers was spying, the Americans secretly attempt to arrange a swap before the young pilot breaks and spills secrets – a swap of Gary Powers for Rudolf Abel.

The first half of the film is essentially a courtroom drama set against the public outrage over a Soviet spy caught on American soil, while the second half is more a spy thriller, much of it taking place in Communist East Berlin shortly after the Berlin Wall went up.

Tom Hanks plays James Donovan, a successful insurance lawyer that the U.S. government recruits to serve as Rudolf Abel’s (Mark Rylance) court-appointed defense lawyer, and who later helped broker the prisoner exchange for Powers. Abel is a quiet, balding, bespectacled middle-aged man who spends his days painting while living in a tiny New York apartment. He hardly seems anyone’s idea of a spy yet when the FBI finds evidence that he is smuggling secrets to the Russians, he is arrested. The U.S. government is concerned that the trial appear fair to the international community, so it needs a lawyer to act as his defense attorney – a job sure to make the attorney involved a target of popular hatred. When Donovan’s politically-connected boss (Alan Alda) approaches him about defending Abel, Donovan balks, objecting that he is an insurance lawyer, not a defense attorney. Reluctantly, Donovan agrees to do it, as a service to his country, and because it will put the firm in a good light with the government, joking that at least it will be a quick conviction and all be over soon.

Still, Donovan is a true Greatest Generation type and once he takes the job, he is fully committed. He aims to give Abel his Constitutional right to a good defense, an attitude that sometimes brings Donovan into conflict with the judge or others who only want him to go through the motions. When he meets the accused spy, Donovan is surprised to find a gentle, remarkably calm man with a British accent, who seems more concerned with being able to continue his artwork while jailed than in the charges against him. Intrigued by Abel’s unflappable demeanor, Donovan finally asks “Aren’t you worried?” to which Abel, leaning forward and visibly perking up, replies “Would it help?” as if eager to accommodate the request. The phrase becomes a kind of tag-line as the two men develop a mutual respect and even a kind of unlikely friendship.

Although BRIDGE OF SPIES is basically a spy drama, the script by the Coen brothers interjects a healthy dose of humor, generally of the sly or ironic variety, into the film’s taut, twisty, true Cold War tale, which blends courtroom drama and spy intrigue. The Coen brothers signature sensibility counter balances Spielberg’s tendency to the sentimentality, to create a perfect sweet spot for the film’s tone. Spielberg’s magical touch taps into a classic period style for the film, much as he did for “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” which is paired with Hanks’ James Stewart-style likeability. This already powerful convergence of cinematic forces is further enhanced by Janusz Kaminski’s atmospheric photography which adds a noir-ish feel to the film.

Top-notch acting performances from Tom Hanks, in perhaps one of his best roles, and the scene-stealing Mark Rylance further boost this crowd-pleasing movie. While lead Tom Hanks is excellent in his meaty role, renowned British theater actor Mark Rylance pretty much steals the show as Rudolf Abel, the British-born, East Germany-based KGB spy. Rylance delivers a striking portrayal of a gentle, harmless-seeming man who cleverly evades every effort to pin him down. Rylance’s polite, dryly funny artist Abel seems so non-threatening, it is hard to see him as villain, which gains him some audience sympathy even though he was almost certainly passing secrets.

The story is set at a time of both nationalist hysteria over Communists and nuclear war, and conformist group-think. When people complain that Abel is a “traitor,” Donovan reminds them Abel is not an American, and he is serving his own country, although he is breaking our laws. While the U.S. government wants to produce the appearance of fairness in the trial, everyone from the judge onward is eager to see Abel convicted, as swiftly as possible. Yet Dovovan’s own professional integrity compels him to do his job diligently, something he becomes more stubborn about as the trial unfolds. Donovan’s requests for due-process are met with a certain irritation. Given the rising Cold War tensions, Donovan becomes convinced that an American spy is sure to be captured by the Russians at some point. He uses the argument that Abel might be a valuable bargaining chip should an American be caught as he fights hard to save Abel from execution.

When there is such a spy captured, the CIA comes to Donovan for help with backdoor negotiations for a trade, a kind of farcical but scary secret diplomatic dance in East Germany, just as the Berlin Wall is going up, with a bunch of East German spies posing as Abel’s family and and ever-shifting representatives of the Soviet side. The CIA is only interested in getting pilot Gary Powers (Austin Stowell) back but Donovan is determined to also free an American student Frederick Pryor (Will Rogers) who was caught on the wrong side of the Wall when it went up.

The film captures the period perfect through period details, muted colors and spot-on portrayal of the feel of Cold War America and its paranoia about nuclear war and obsession with conformity. Donovan’s son watches the famous “Duck and Cover” nuclear attack-preparedness government educational film at school, and then comes home to insist that the family keep bathtub filled with water in case of nuclear attack, an incident Spielberg drew from his own childhood. Donovan’s spouse Mary (Amy Ryan) is the perfect housewife, raising their three children in picket-fence suburbia. Period details are perfect as well, down to Donovan’s favorite coffee, Nescafe instant.

With Spielberg directing and the Coens writing, BRIDGE OF SPIES is the best of both. Add in Hanks and Rylance providing strong performances, and this film is an entertainment winner sure to stick in audience’s minds for a while.

BRIDGE OF SPIES releases in Theaters
on Friday, October 16th, 2015

OVERALL RATING: 4 1/2 OUT OF 5 STARS