Exquisitely acted and authentic-looking Cold War drama

Rating: 9/10 (17 October 2016)

If the basis of a good film is a good story, then it shouldn't be too difficult to make a success out of the real-life (1962) exchange of (British-born) Soviet spy Rudolf Abel for American spy-plane pilot Francis Gary Powers and American student Frederic Pryor, all the more so given the background of the construction of the Berlin Wall, and the events leading to Abel's capture in a "Reds Under the Bed"-obsessed 1957 America.
But "Bridge of Spies" does not make it very clear that its real-life events cover a 5-year period, and maybe that is as it should be. This is a film, when all is said and done, and it is as a film that it should or must be judged. Who knows if Rudolf Abel was as likable as Mark Rylance makes him out to be? Intuitively that would seem pretty unlikely. And indeed perhaps even Tom Hanks's lawyer for Abel's defence - James B. Donovan - was not quite the ideally noble character we see.
It matters not in the work of art that is this film.
The ever-so-slightly Nixon-like Hanks looks like he's been extracted physically from 1957, and indeed immaculate authenticity of US setting is a hallmark of the film. And - having been born in Poland in 1959 - Janusz Kaminski on camera needs no lessons in how to make the Eastern European scenes look as they should. Thomas Newman's score adds greatly to the effect, and there are enough 2015 nuances in plot-lines and script to hint to us (I think rightly) that the division of the then world into US angels and Soviet devils was almost but not quite that.
Indeed, a joy of the film (if not for the first time in cinema history) is the way it depicts (again one assumes realistically) the way in which East and West did have to find some ways at least of "getting on", even if only for pragmatic reasons, and - let's face it - to ensure that the bombs were not actually dropped, in spite of all the rhetoric. They were not, so somehow it worked...
While supporting cast members like Alan Alda, Scott Shepherd, Sebastian Koch, Peter McRobbie (in an excellent cameo as Allen Dulles) and especially Mikhail Gorevoy (as the KGB man) all do great things in parts that paint in that authentic background, this is ultimately the film of the Rylance-Hanks pairing, and this is inspiring and interesting, and offers the chance for a surprising amount of wit and wisdom, and indeed warmth.
Indeed, this film has a particular cosy feel about it, which scarcely seems warranted - given the circumstances - but is quite tangible and imparts huge watchability to the movie. Not for a moment do things drag.
Ultimately, that enigmatic "cosiness" presumably boils down to the fact that the Donovan we follow is left much to his own devices as he moves from East to West and back again, is regularly in danger (indeed even in his own home in America), is playing a potentially risky game of high stakes with very big fish indeed, but manages to do so successfully by simply doing his (lawyer's) job as best he can in a circumstance in which his "best" is pretty darned good. He somehow keeps himself out of danger, and although he is sharp and even at times wily, he is most of all just dogged; and he keeps (or chooses to keep) things clean, simple and straight when all those around him seek to make them dirty, devious and complicated. Given that the key concept in the whole film (put into words by Abel) is that here is a man who always stands up again no matter how many times, and no matter how hard, he is knocked down, that cohesively whole image is indeed conveyed by the film, and it comes over as remarkably refreshing, and surprisingly convincing.
Those interested in the truth behind the story are encouraged to read about it at length, but that should definitely be done after the film has been seen and judged (and enjoyed) on its own merits, which are as a very impressive and enjoyable piece of art.