The Spy Who Went Into the Cold

Rating: 10/10 (26 October 2015)

(Rating: ☆☆☆☆ out of 4)
This film is highly recommended.
In brief: A riveting docudrama with Spielberg and Hanks at the top of their game
GRADE: A-
Bridge of Spies is a true Cold War tale about the espionage business, its unethical surveillance methods, and the ongoing political war games orchestrated between powerful nations. The film does shamelessly manipulate the emotions of its audience and, at times, lets the nostalgia wash over its subject matter depicting more innocent times than in actuality, but, in the capable hands of Steven Spielberg, this is superb filmmaking and one of the year's best. ￼
The director's masterful handling of this complex story impresses in its concise storytelling and richly drawn characters. The screenplay by Matt Charman and the Coen Brothers builds its narrative convincingly and clearly lays its background exposition through its compelling dialog that not only establishes the characters and their motives but moves the action at a steady pace.
The year is 1957 when the United States and Russia were major enemies and spies worked undercover in search of oneupmanship. (Some things never change.) Back then, the world was splintering into different political factions, the military industrial complex was expanding, the threat of nuclear retaliation was a common practice, and the Berlin Wall became a reality. (A few do.)
￼Into this quagmire is yet another political incident involving a convicted Russian spy named Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) and an imprisoned American, Gary Powers (Austin Stowell), a pilot caught behind enemy lines. One man, a lawyer named James Donovan (Tom Hanks) is asked to act as a go-between and secretly negotiate their exchange. The film chronicles these events with authenticity and high drama.
The acting is excellent and the film is very well cast. Mr. Hanks has played the similarly upright decent common man role before but he continually impresses with his restraint and understatement of a man with a moral code that will not waiver. The actor never allows his character to overplay the righteousness and make Donovan more complicated by his subtle acting choices. Mr. Rylance has the more showier role as Abel and he brings a sly and layered portrait of a man who seems to enjoy being the pawn in this chess match. Other standouts include Alan Alda as one of Donavan's associates, Dakin Matthews as a very biased judge, Jon Curry and Michael Gaston as determined CIA agents, Will Rogers as as idealistic college student caught in the cloak-and-dagger web of intrigue, and Amy Ryan as Donovan's loving 50's wife, white pearl necklace included.
￼Production values are top notch. Janusz Kaminski's lovely muted photography, wonderful art direction designed by Adam Stockhausen, Kasia Walicka-Malmone's nuanced period costumes, and a subtle and haunting music score by the talented Thomas Newman all work to enhance this film.
But it is Mr. Spielberg's vision that resonates. His love of period Americana and the late fifties era create powerful vignettes (e.g.: spectators in a courtroom rise segueing into students reciting the Pledge of Allegiance leading to a school lecture on the effects of radiation poisoning to highly impressionable children, desperate people trying to escape over the Berlin Wall and, moments later, seeing typical children playing and climbing over wire fences, reporters scurrying over broken discarded flashbulbs from old fashioned cameras that litter a courthouse corridor, a frightening aerial escape as a plane spins out of control. Special kudos to Michael Kahn for his skillful editing as well.) Spielberg's willingness to establish period details of pop culture images defines the film brilliantly.
￼Bridge of Spies is a triumph and one of Mr. Spielberg's finest cinematic projects to date.
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