A flawed but interesting insight into Cold War tension

Rating: Null/10 (23 November 2015)

Based on the true story of an American insurance lawyer who wound up negotiating spy exchanges during the Cold War, 'Bridge of Spies' does a sterling job depicting tensions and insecurities during one of the most volatile periods in US history. While the focus of the film is always the American lawyer, played by Tom Hanks, the film successfully weaves in several subplots that hint at what it was like to live during the Cold War. Most potently, the lawyer's son becomes obsessed with preparing for nuclear disaster after watching one too many propaganda films at school. Not so successfully woven in are two subplots involving the men who Hanks has to negotiate getting back in exchange for a captured Russian spy. The time-line of events in the film is also a little incredulous; no sooner has Hanks pleaded for the Russian's spy life to be spared in case of prisoner exchange is a prisoner exchange suddenly put on the table. Never to mind, Mark Rylance is superb as the Russian spy who hilariously keeps asking "would it help?" whenever Hanks asks him if he is worried. In fact, there is quite a bit of oddball humour in the film (Burghart Klaussner answering the wrong phone, etc), which can probably be chalked up to the Coen Brothers script. Furthermore, one of the film's strongest assets is how it balances light humour and very grim drama. As icing on the cake, the film looks superb with accurate period sets/costumes and lots of fluid, mobile camera-work from Janusz Kaminski. Thomas Newman provides an effective score too in lieu of John Williams.