Intense spy game. Claim and release.

Rating: 7/10 (20 May 2016)

Spielberg and Hanks; is that enough of a drawing card? Steven Spielberg re-investigates a decades old historical event. Fact-based and liberties taken in this fact-bound story. Thrill and suspense driven almost documentary-style drama that takes place during the height of the Cold War in 1960. An American U-2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary powers is downed by the Soviets. And a KGB mole Rudolf Abel is captured in New York in 1957.
Hanks plays James Donovan, a Brooklyn insurance claims lawyer that just happens to be a former Nuremburg trial prosecutor is picked to negotiate a trade with the USSR. The transfer of spies is to be made on the Glienicke Bridege that links West Berlin with Potsdam. If things aren't exactly trustworthy at first, Donovan on his own initiative wants to pull in a third man into the swap. An American med student, Frederic Pryor, has been detained on the hostile side of the Berlin Wall. Now the trade appears lopsided...two Americans for Abel.
This movie moves to its own rhythm and suspense proves to be the substance to propel the tricky trade. Mark Rylance as Abel may just be the real star; not that Hanks doesn't dig deep. Also in the cast: Alan Alda, Amy Ryan, Mark Fichera, Brian Hutchison, Domenick Lombardozzi, Joshua Harto and Victor Verhaeghe.