Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
Tom Hanks reunites with Steven Spielberg for the new film Bridge of Spies, which is inspired by a gripping, true story from the Cold War.
However, given that the film is a Spielberg, the politics comes with dollops of morality and sweet sentimentality, all coming together in the person of – yes – Tom Hanks. Now he’s turned a sliver of Cold War history into a meditation on morality and American values. (The film, based on actual events, mostly skims past one of the most fascinating tales in the annals of worldwide espionage, involving a little boy who’s given a hollow nickel with microfilm concealed within.) McCarthyism had largely died down by that time, but America still looked upon Communists with sheer loathing; defending one was tantamount to representing a child molester. To add to the overall excellence of the movie, the Coen Brothers were even brought in to work on the script. “Bridge of Spies” is a must see for any movie-goer this weekend.
That question aside, Hanks excels in his performance as James Donovan.
A terrific cast has been assembled for the film, as Hanks and Rylance are joined by Amy Ryan, Alan Alda, Austin Stowell, and Sebastian Koch.
Spielberg is great at this cloak-and-dagger stuff as he whisks his camera around the frozen streets of East and West Berlin with precision.
When American spy Francis Gary Powers was captured and imprisoned in Russian Federation back during the Cold War, the United States sprang into action to try and find a way to get him home but the seized Central Intelligence Agency agent didnt actually know that.
It starts when we meet Russian spy Rudolf Abel, although we don’t yet know he’s a Russian spy (unless you know your history or have seen the movie’s trailer, commercials or any of the marketing, of course). The scenes between Rylance and Hanks are a few of the best in the film, with both actors having real chemistry on screen and showing how these two men eventually grow from being lawyer and client to borderline friends. Freedom, compassion and the right to a fair trial were once the cornerstones of the country. But the US government doesn’t want to be officially involved, so they ask Donovan to go to Germany and broker the trade.
This all makes Donovan sound like a martyr. That’s why he’s one of the best to ever do it.
“Bridge of Spies” is mostly a Hanks and Spielberg show, but Matt Charman and Ethan and Joel Coen’s script contains many supporting characters.
MLive reports that “Bridge of Spies” opens with no music and no dialogue. Further enforced by strong editing, sweeping cinematography, an elegant score, and Spielberg’s unmatched eye for direction, Bridge of Spies is a rousing motion picture.
