Mostly Well-Made but Very Forgettable and a Little Slow

Rating: 7/10 (5 April 2016)

Bridge of Spies is based on the true story of an insurance lawyer during the Cold War who is chosen to defend a Russian spy in court simply to give the man a fair trial, and he decides to take it too far. For the most part it's well presented, but it doesn't stand out as anything special.
The plot is one that I think we've all seen before. There's someone who wants to help beyond his call of duty, so he does. It's not a bad plot line, but it's not a particularly good one. It's like a superhero movie without the capes. Although Bridge of Spies is much better than most superhero movies. It's not very well-paced all the time though, and it does drag a little pretty much throughout the entire movie. I always felt myself checking the remaining run time and wondering how the movie would find enough content to compensate for its 142 minute run time. It does, though, and I think that for the most part it did it well.
The character development is just fine. Jim Donovan is just like any other main character in these kinds of movies: He wants to help people, and he overdoes it more than expected despite people not wanting him to. Other than him, there's hardly any focus on any other character, so in short, they're just fine. Nothing special, but not bad either.
The acting is just fine too. Mark Rylance, who somehow won an Oscar for his performance, is such a minor character that he barely had enough time to showcase his skills as an actor. Sure, he's important to the story, but he has barely enough screen time to really be considered all that important. This is more of a personal issue that doesn't really affect my opinion of the movie, however, and is more directed at the Oscars themselves.
Overall Bridge of Spies is a good movie. It's not fantastic, it's not great, it's just good. It's one of those movies that I just watched and will probably never watch again or think about really afterwards. It's pretty forgettable, actually. Nothing about it stood out in particular, it was just good. In the end I'd recommend this movie. Maybe you'll love it, maybe you'll hate it, and maybe you'll just like it. I can see why anyone would feel any of those ways.