Bridge of Spies

Score:  ***1/2 out of ***** (B)

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Starring Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Amy Ryan

Running time: 141 minutes

Rated PG-13

Long Story Short:  Bridge of Spies is Spielberg's latest, and he continues his trend in recent years with another historical drama.  Featuring one of the best actors around, Tom Hanks, plus a notable supporting performance and an interesting premise, the film will entertain a wide audience.  But the film is also split in two, which hinders both halves, and the film is often too simplistic and predictable.  Recommended for a rental, but certainly not a must-see theater experience.

Serenely painting and making his way through New York City in 1957, an old man, Rudolph Abel (Rylance), seems unremarkable.  But in a world sitting on the edge of civilization-ending nuclear conflict between America and Soviet Russia, not all things are as they seem.  The FBI tracks Abel to his home and arrests him as a spy.  Hard intelligence is not the only thing of value in the Cold War, though: America hopes to prevail in the culture war, too, and the government assigns insurance lawyer James Donovan (Hanks) to defend Abel.  Donovan is commended for his service to country; but Donovan soon becomes interested in fighting a genuine case - despite the risks to his family and his career.

The Cold War gets even more complicated when an American spy plane is shot down over Russia, its pilot captured by the Soviets.  The American government quickly reverses its thinking on Donovan: the man who went against his own country to defend the enemy may be just what it needs to bring home a brave young service man.

Bridge of Spies' cast is capably led by the two main players, and supported by a mixed group of minor characters.  Tom Hanks, perhaps the most accomplished actor of his generation (and one of my favorites overall), doesn't have to stray far from his wheelhouse to portray the earnest, honorable lawyer Donovan.  Onscreen almost the entire film, Hanks makes keeping his character consistent look easy.  He employs a wry sense of humor very effectively to prevent the story from being too much of a textbook study.  It's a fairly typical Hanks performance, by which I mean it's excellent.  Even better, though, is Mark Rylance in the film's second biggest role, Soviet spy Abel.  He communicates the kind of man Abel is simply by his facial expression (mostly unchanging) and the way he moves - calm, quiet, resolute, yet gentle.  He speaks few lines, but one line in particular is repeated several times to great effect - both his delivery and the writing.  Rylance's Abel is the best single thing about the film.  The supporting cast is a mixed bag.  Most of them are caricatures to one degree or another - Donovan's CIA handler (Scott Shepherd) being the worst - while others do much better, like Amy Ryan as Donovan's wife.

Bridge of Spies is another Spielberg historically-based drama, in a traditional style like his 2011 film War Horse.  In some ways this style pays off, and in others it does not.  The film is essentially made up of two distinct halves:  Donovan's defense of Abel in the first, and his attempts to negotiate with the Soviets for a prisoner exchange in the second.  Both halves have their merits.  Rylance's performance is the highlight of the first half, though it's also fun to get to know Donovan's character, too.  The opening scenes tracking Abel are quite well done - free of dialogue, full of mystery.  The second half has an interesting collection of Soviet/East German characters (even if some can be a bit cartoonish), and Donovan's negotiating style is intriguing particularly as it recalls his insurance roots.  The climax and its resolution are both satisfying, impressively so considering the result is not really surprising.  Spielberg generally does a great job scene to scene, with he and his cast usually making the most of the script and atmosphere.

Unfortunately, there are also some significant flaws that should be pointed out as well.  Perhaps the biggest is the dual nature of the film; as I mentioned, it's basically split in half.  While the two are connected, this has the result of the first half feeling rushed and the second half feeling out of place and, combined with the overall running time, dragging on too long.  There is great stuff to explore in both halves, and Spielberg couldn't seem to pick one over the other, thus diluting them both (Lincoln felt both shorter and more focused, despite actually being longer).  Bridge of Spies is great at nuance in places, but the script is not one of them.  This is especially so in Abel's trial (spies=bad, screw due process just 'cause!), in the form of the judge, and later on in Donovan's CIA handler (government agents are cold, heartless bastards!).  Traditional, earnest filmmaking is one thing; cliched storytelling (in not all, but too much of, the film) with straw men villains is another.  Finally, and maybe this only bugs me, but long-time Spielberg cinematographer Kaminski returns and brings his awful lighting that is way too bright and artificial - he doesn't use it in all his films, but he did it in the new Indiana Jones, too, and completely wrecked it.

***

Bridge of Spies is a good film, and I'm surprised by its 93% score on Rotten Tomatoes.  Part of this score and my opinion in general might be based on higher expectations for Spielberg films - he's certainly shown that he can make excellent historical dramas.  While Hanks and Rylance are strong leads and it's an interesting story, I think Spielberg was just a bit lazy with this one, or maybe he simply didn't know exactly what he wanted from it.  It has appeal for a broad audience, but I would recommend waiting for it to come to Netflix (and when I say that I mean DVD/BluRay; you can get pretty much anything in existence on disc, but their streaming selection is far, far smaller).  This one isn't worthy of a Best Picture nomination, but it's a solid drama for a night at home with a movie.

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