2015 ( USA | Germany | India ) ( Biography, Drama, Thriller )
STARRING: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Alan Alda
DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg
During the Cold War, an American lawyer (Tom Hanks) is recruited to defend an arrested Soviet spy in court, and then help the CIA facilitate an exchange of the spy for the Soviet captured American U2 spy plane pilot, Francis Gary Powers.
Working from a script of twisty ingenuity (co-written by the Coen brothers), Spielberg pitches Donovan’s lone everyman against the interests of his CIA overseers and Russian and East German negotiating partners, playing one against the other with shrewd determination to win the release of a further US hostage, a young student caught behind the Berlin Wall at the wrong moment.
Bridge of Spies is an elegant, intelligent slice of popular entertainment that peppers its gripping intrigue with winning wit and humour. It also manages to make a modern hero out of an insurance lawyer. How’s that for pure movie magic?
.(2hr 22min)