A really good story that could have been a really good movie if done by anyone else.

Rating: 5/10 (7 March 2016)

What is it about Spielberg? He has turned into the King of the Banal. Or perhaps he was always thus? Except for Jaws maybe?
But let's start with the GOOD stuff first. First off, I'm okay watching a Spielberg movie because I know he's not going to be using HAND- HELD throughout the movie. I seriously appreciate the camera work of people like Spielberg or Wes Anderson because I know I don't have to take Dramamine to watch their stuff.
Secondly, Rylance probably deserved his Oscar. He's so mysterious. You always want to know what is going on with that guy! I just loved his fake befuddlement near the beginning of the movie when the CIA bust in on him. Great stuff.
Third - Hanks. Tom Hanks does a bang up job giving this character real humanity. He turns him into a real person...as much as he can, since there is not much of a real person in the way the character was written. Another one of Spielberg's stalwart heroes. Dull as dishwater - except for the fact that Hanks wrestles the human being out of the flat script.
So now onto the stuff that bugs me - let's start with the ending. Seriously, this movie could have ended 10 minutes earlier. Why oh why does S.S. have to always put those crappy endings on his movies? Hero comes home to wide-eyed adoring wife and/or children. And I'm a bit tired of these cypher-like, no-personality wives in these stupid movies.
Was the wife really part of the story? No, so it is not necessary to cram that character in there being all 50s wife-ish and yelling about what it's all DOING TO THE FAMILY and all that other trite crap. Since no women were actually involved in this story - historically - it's OKAY to not try to shoehorn a female character into it. We women won't get all offended! We'd much prefer you just leave out the doting wife crap altogether. And leave the precocious interactions with the son out too, please. Why is this stuff always in an S.S. movie? Every. Damn. Time.
Was there a point to having Alan Alda show up for 5 minutes to be a dick? And why set up this whole thing with the young man who was going to assist Donovan with the case and then the character just...disappears. Could S.S. cast someone even REMOTELY interesting to play Powers? And was all of New York really all reading the same newspaper and staring Donovan down on the subway? I really hate these dumb, made-up movie scenarios. Finally, nobody ever shot up Donovan's house. You really lose your credibility when you spice up the truth with bull-dooky incidents.
(As long as we are on that vein...did people in the late 50s/early 60s watch as much television as the family in this movie does? Wouldn't the little ones be outside playing stickball? Wouldn't the teen girl be up in her room playing 45s?)
It wasn't torturous to watch this movie. But it was just a movie. What it mostly did was spur you onto the internet to read about the real people and the real incidents. But as you are sitting and watching and getting curious about "the real story" you will find yourself rolling your eyes a lot.