A real accomplishment

Rating: Null/10 (30 November 2015)

A thriller co-authored by Joel and Ethan Coen, directed by Steven Spielberg and, starring Tom Hanks promises much - and fortunately "Bridge Of Spies" delivers. For all this super-talent, what gives the movie such power is the compelling story which is largely inspired by true events.
At the height of the Cold War in 1962, an insurance lawyer called James Donovan (Hanks) - without any specific status or authority and suffering from a head cold during the key negotiations - managed to facilitate a spy swap. In return for downed U2 pilot Gary Powers, (and an unfortunate American student detained in East Berlin), the Americans agreed to hand over convicted Soviet KGB spy Rudolf Abel, the physical exchange of the actual spies taking place on Glienicke Bridge (hence the title of the movie echoing that other bridge in Venice).
This is a great role for Hanks who plays the kind of decent American that is rare in the movies these days, an amicable lawyer who is willing to offer Abel a legal defence and gives a CIA operative a mini-lecture on the need to honour "the rule book" that is the US Constitution.
In effect, Donovan is the bridge between Abel and Powers and the film cleverly tells the spies'stories in parallel - two dedicated state servants who become lonely prisoners whose only physical connection is a few seconds passing one another on a snowy bridge without a word exchanged between them. Abel is played by the outstanding British actor Mark Rylance who, as he did in his portrayal of Thomas Cromwell on BBC television, ushers a laconic, wry and understated persona (although his accent rather wanders).
It is a tribute to the sharp (and sometimes amusing) script - co-authored by British dramatist Matt Charmian - that, although we know how the mission will end, it is still a gripping tale. Thanks to cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, the film looks good with a lot of attention to period detail, but there are a couple of contemporary political messages here.
The first is clear: in the face of a war (whether the cold war or the war on terror), we should not abandon our "rulebook" (that is, our protection of liberty). The other message might be unintentional: just as the East Germans build a wall and fortifications to prevent their citizens from seeking freedom and prosperity in the West, so Europe today - but notably not Germany itself - is erecting fences to present Syrian and other refugees from their efforts to flee another form of totalitarian rule.