New York, 1 9 5 7. Painter Rudolf Abel works as a Soviet spy, and is thus arrested by the FBI. Since he has to have due process, for fairness sake, he is awarded to insurance lawyer James Donovan, who reluctantly accepts to defend him. Abel is sentenced to 30 years in prison. However, when a US spy plane is shot down over the Soviet Union, its pilot Gary Powers is also sentenced for espionage. Donovan is sent to East Berlin to try to arrange a prisoner exchange of Abel and Powers, but also including American student Frederic Pryor, who was arrested by the Communist East Germany. Despite complications, Abel is exchanged for Powers and Pryor.
“Bridge of Spies” is another good, but monotone ‘social issues’ film offering a routine Steven Spielberg, indicating that the famous director achieved his last great film with “Munich”, after which he dedicated himself to formally noble, albeit underwhelming “message movies” about human rights. Everything in this film is done just right, with no bad scenes, and on a technical level there is nothing to complain about, yet except for the opening (Abel has a mirror on his left side and his own portrait on the right side, looking at drawing himself in his own reflection), there are no great scenes. There is just no fun or excitement in watching this film. Everything is somehow standard, bland, clinical and mechanical, like a cinematic PowerPoint presentation, which is mostly disappointing when one has in mind that the script was co-written by the Coen brothers—but just without their trademark clever, witty dialogues. Spielberg has some observations about the Cold War in the story: he presents both Abel’s conviction for espionage at a US court, and then American Powers’ conviction for espionage in a Soviet court, drawing parallels about how the two countries acted similarly about this, yet this comes full circle in a sequence that rhymes, when Donovan (good Tom Hanks) is traveling in a train in East Berlin and spots some men climbing the wall, only to get shot by border guards, and later on he is in a train in the US, watching some teenagers climbing identically over a fence—and blissfully smiling that nothing happens to them for that, indicating a profound difference between the USA and USSR: despite all of their flaws, the former is still a society that promotes and advances humans, while the latter is a society that debases humans. Mark Rylance is solid as spy Abel, but his role is too lukewarm to engage the viewers. Spielberg and Hanks cooperated on five films together, but only two filmed before “Munich” touched greatness: “Saving Private Ryan” and “Catch Me If You Can”.
Grade:++
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