Spielberg Can Make Even the Cold War Maudlin

Rating: 6/10 (15 April 2016)

I thought that the Coen brothers as co-screenwriters of "Bridge of Spies" meant that we might get some restraint and intelligence to balance the maudlin platitudes that almost certainly come attached with a Steven Spielberg film. But I was wrong. Spielberg takes a chilly Cold War setting and then proceeds to pump sentimentality into it until by the end it's as sunny and warm as a Folgers coffee commercial.
Tom Hanks, as usual, does his best to calm Spielberg down, and plays the main character as an every man Joe trying to do the right thing despite Spielberg's attempts to cram his heroics down our throats. But by the film's end, he's as overwhelmed by the rest of us by Spielberg's schmaltz, served with healthy doses of the requisite pounding Spielbergian score, this one supplied not by John Williams but rather by Thomas Newman.
Mark Rylance won an Oscar for playing a Russian spy who barely speaks, and I suppose I appreciated his ability to convey emotions without histrionics, something Spielberg certainly isn't capable of. But I can't say I really see that he did anything special enough to warrant an Academy Award.
The Coens were nominated for their script, which they co-wrote with Matt Charman, and the film also copped nominations for Best Picture, Production Design, Original Score, and Sound Mixing.
Grade: B-