Bridge of Spies Knows What Matters

If you’re a Steven Spielberg fan, and like me, you somehow managed to miss last year’s Bridge of Spies, I’d recommend you track down a copy pronto, as for my money, Spies is his best film since Munich.  

Set in 1957 during the height of the cold war and shadow of nuclear dread, the story begins with the arrest of Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance), a Russian spy suspected of revealing treasonous secrets. While Abel’s already strapped to the electric chair in the court of public opinion, someone has to represent him in court, so the powers that be convince insurance lawyer James Donovan (Tom Hanks) to go through the motions of Abel’s trial. In another time, Donovan would be played by Jimmy Stewart, and Hanks is terrific here as Spielberg’s ordinary man swept up in extraordinary circumstances – an Atticus Finch kind of role. Donovan is a straightforward, decent guy who believes in doing the right thing. Abel is hard to figure and not what you’d expect, and when Donovan sees another man who seems basically decent, he can’t step back from trying to do right by him as his client – that every person matters, despite the loathing by association he inherits in public for his efforts. Donovan’s integrity gets knocked out of joint against two big governments both intent on patriotic show trials.

When history intervenes, and America’s own U-2 spy plane is shot down over Russia, with pilot Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell) now a Soviet prisoner, Donovan’s hunch that keeping Abel alive for bargaining chip value proves a canny one.  What he didn’t count on was having to go into the casino itself to act as dealer, and he soon finds himself on both sides of the newly constructed Berlin wall, trying to talk his way out. He’s soon having to use his attorney skills in environments more suited to espionage and spycraft.

Spielberg crafts a unique and unashamedly old fashioned tone, and there are moments where Bridge of Spies hearkens back to both Frank Capra and Stanley Kubrick. 2015 was a watershed year for cinematography, and looking back I’m aghast that Janusz Kamiński wasn’t nominated for his cinematography (though he did receive an ASC nomination). His work with Spielberg here is stunning, giving the film a strong 50’s echo of the period, from the moody New York interiors to the snowy desolation of a collapsing Berlin. It feels like a lot of Kubrick found its way into the shooting here, particularly in the way Kamiński captures the terrific assortment of supporting actors Spielberg has assembled. There are some amazing faces here, all of whom deliver superb, engrossing work – Amy Ryan, Alan Alda, Domenick Lombardozzi, Jesse Plemons, Dakin Matthews, Scott Shepherd, Cordell Stahl, Michael Gaston, Mikhail Gorevoy and Sebastian Koch are among the dazzling array of faces navigating the hallways of paranoia and suspicion. Many of them look like just the kinds of striking visages Kubrick would populate his tightly-wound clockwork environments with. Matt Charman’s script is abetted by Joel and Ethan Coen, riffing off of the absurd devotion to bureaucracy amidst the extreme stakes of nuclear Armageddon.

The pacing of Bridge of Spies moves at an old school slow burn, but it's beautifully constructed and it never lets up. Film fans who can appreciate Hitchcock's thrills and Capra's heart will find plenty to savor in this terrific blend of compassion and suspense. Very highly recommended