Solid in all departments

Rating: 8/10 (27 November 2015)

It is 1957, and commercial lawyer James Donovan is required to defend spy Rudolf Abel, which he does (unsuccessfully). When US spy pilot Gary Powers is shot down by the Russians, Donovan is called upon to negotiate an exchange, into which he factors US student Frederic Pryor in a 2-for-1 exchange. But Powers is held by the Russians and Pror is held by the East Germans, and they don't have the same agendas.
Steven Spielberg picks up the hidden parts of a story which had disappeared under the headline value of Gary Powers Shot Down, and it turns out to be quite a small story, but displayed on a big canvas (the painting metaphor is apt, as Abel's painting forms part of the film's narrative). The film conjures up its era very well – the comfort of 1950s USA vs the grim drabness of Berlin, the USA paranoia over the red menace, the communist paranoia over everything. And, among the efficient and effective telling of the story (aided by a script touch-up from the Coen brothers), there are the usual Spielbergian directorial flourishes, primarily some wonderful moving camera shots. This is not an attractive film – post-war Berlin was not an attractive city – but it is never less than rewarding to watch.
Tom Hanks does a sterling job as the deceptively mild but steely Donovan, and Mark Rylance's Abel is similar to his Thomas Cromwell: a watcher and a listener, with quiet depths.
This is not a film full of bluster and bombast, but it is an impressive and gripping movie.