Adding To Spielberg's Amazing Collection Is....

Rating: 9/10 (27 February 2016)

Bridge of Spies is directed Steven Spielberg and stars Tom Hanks as James Donovan, an American lawyer that, in Cold War era 1957, is chosen to defend a captured Soviet spy named Rudolf Adel (Mark Rylance) in a court of law. He later is selected to negotiate a swap of sorts to trade Mr. Adel to the Soviets in exchange for an imprisoned American pilot, Francis Powers (Austin Stowell). This film is based off of a true story, and is truly one of the best films of 2015. I'm glad it's nominated for best picture.
The best thing this movie offers is the directing. Very few films are directed perfectly, and this is absolutely one of them. The camera angles Spielberg utilizes are fantastic, and his ability to capture a whole conversation in just one shot is magnificent. The cinematography is also great. The cinematographer (Janusz Kamiński) did amazing at capturing the Cold War era, and the flips in between Germany and the United States are very distinguishable and impressive.
On the contrary, the movie is long, and has about 2% rewatchability. Much like Spielberg's 1993 film, Schindler's List, the movie is a one or two time watch, and may be a two hour-thirty minute snooze-fest for action lovers. Anybody who comes to this movie expecting James Bond espionage will surely have a good nap. However, a film lover and admirer of the art of cinema will be on the edge of his seat.
The acting is also great. Tom Hanks gives an amazing performance, as always, yet not very memorable, unlike Forrest Gump or Captain Miller (Saving Private Ryan). His character won't be remembered in twenty years or so, no matter the status that the film ascertains. However, Mark Rylance gives the performance of his career. Besides Stallone, Rylance is most qualified to acquire the Oscar. The only performance I really had a problem with was that of Amy Ryan in the role of Mary Donovan (James' wife). She didn't exactly do bad, but her ability to portray her disagreement with her husband in dealing with his defense of a Soviet spy.
The main problem I had with this movie is everything having to do with the American spy, throughout the first 45 minutes or so of the film. It takes away from the intensity going on with Hanks' and Rylance's characters. Every time something suspenseful was happening, the film would switch over to Power's side of the story, which wasn't too interesting. His scenes were directed well, and acted well, so the blame goes to the jumpy script, although the Coen brothers (yeah, they wrote a serious movie) ultimately did well once the second act rolled around, and lifted the film up pretty high.
The last thing I'll mention is the score. This is the first Spielberg movie in many years that is not composed by John Williams, and it shows. However, that's not a bad thing. This film has a really good score, and keeps the suspense up, in a style Williams doesn't often use. Not to criticize Williams; he's the best film composer working today, but the score is captured beautifully by Thomas Newman, this film adding to his collection of many other great films he's scored, such as The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and American Beauty (1999).
Overall, Bridge of Spies is a great movie with a few nitpicky problems here and there. The acting is good, the script is good, and the directing is flawless. I'm going to give Bridge of Spies an A-, or a 9 out of 10.