A good historical and dramatic film

Rating: 8/10 (3 July 2019)

In 1957 James B. Donovan ,an insurance lawyer, becomes the defense counsel of Rudolf Abel.Donovan is a very intelligent man: he is convinced that Rudolf Abel alive might be more useful for a future prisoner exchange that condemned to death.So he manages to to spare Rudolf Abel the death penalty.The climate was very tense in the United States and Donovan was attacked in the newspaper for saving the life of Abel.Some days later, Gary Powers, an U-2 pilot is captured in the Soviet Union.The CIA convinced Donovan to organize a exchange of spies and sent secretly Donovan to Berlin (for his family he was working in London).Donovan hears about a U.S. student Frederic Pryor who has been arrested in East-Berlin and against the opinions of the CIA and U.S. government he is insisting in exchange Abel againt Powers and Pryor.
Donovan was an ecellent negociator, he had this intelligence and tenacity for convincing Russian and East-German for the exchange.
The performances of Tom Hanks and Mrk Rylance are excellent: in these dramatic moments we feel a touch of humour that made this film more alive.