Tom Hanks, a 'warhorse' like Jimmy Stewart

Rating: 8/10 (9 December 2015)

The role of James Donovan would have gone to Jimmy Stewart in years gone by and Hanks brings that same 'warhorse' integrity to the role: a man of modest intellect bringing more to his duties than was demanded or expected of him. Mark Rylance has a more challenging role, since Rudolph Abel is given very little back story, but as Donovan slowly warms to this cold enigmatic man, so do we, the audience. The trial scenes are inevitably slow and static, like their equivalents in LINCOLN and AMISTAD, but when events move to Germany this becomes as enthralling as anything else maestro Spielberg has brought us. Berlin in 1961 - a seamless mixture of set and CGI, presumably - is almost the real star of the movie, grim and oppressive: we see the Wall being built and some heart-wrenchingly desperate escapes.
BRIDGE OF SPIES is history, with only a little jazzing-up (and some condensing of the time-line), so we know how it's going to end, but Spielberg and Hanks manage to generate terrific tension in the final scenes. This whole picture is a chilling reminder of the darkest period in East-West relations, hopefully never to be repeated.