Movie Review: Bridge Of Spies Will you warm to the Cold War drama?

Movie Review: Bridge Of Spies  Will you warm to the Cold War drama?

Steven Spielberg’s new spy thriller, Bridge Of Spies, hit the cinemas on Friday, November 27th.

Has the Oscar-winning director got another hit on his hands?

Tom Hanks leads the cast in this incredible true story – scripted by Matt Charman, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen – that pits a mild-mannered insurance lawyer against the bureaucratic might of the USSR and Germany during the Cold War.

Spielberg and Hanks have in the past worked together in very high standard creations – notably on Saving Private Ryan and Catch Me If You Can.

Will the two create another blockbuster in Bridge Of Spies?

About ‘Bridge of Spies’

Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) is arrested in 1957 New York and labeled a Soviet spy. Legal expert Thomas Watters Jr. (Alan Alda) enlists one of his best lawyers, James B. Donovan (Tom Hanks), to mount a credible defence for the sake of appearances even though the odds are stacked against a fair trial.

Sure enough, Abel is convicted, but then a U.S. pilot, Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell), is shot down over the Soviet Union.

Consequently, Donovan travels to Berlin to broker a secret deal to exchange Abel for Powers.

Against his superiors’ advice, Donovan also opens negotiations with the Stasi for the safe return of an American economics student called Frederic Pryor (Will Rogers), who has been arrested.

Playing East against West, Donovan prays for a miracle as snow falls on the divided city.

Highlights

There is action! Most notably an eerily spectacular air crash that sets the scene for the prisoner exchange that becomes the heart of the story.

There’s a sense of playfulness, too! This may be a cold war movie, but it is also a “war of the colds” tale in which Rylance’s American sniffle blossoms into the raging runny nose that Hanks develops en route to Berlin, which he then passes on like some feverish microfilm.

Cast

Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance (The Other Boleyn Girl), Alan Alda, Austin Stowell (Whiplash), Will Rogers (The Bay), Billy Magnussen (Into The Woods), Amy Ryan (Birdman), Jesse Plemons (Breaking Bad), and Joshua Harto (The Dark Knight).

Worth a watch?

According to popular movie review site IMDB, Bridge of Spies is rated 8/10 by 22, 000 users. That says it all – it’s worth a watch!

Bridge Of Spies is a slow-burning tale of intrigue and bluff that takes its time establishing Donovan as the potential saviour of not one but three lives.

Hanks injects natural warmth and likeability to his character, a hate figure to fellow Americans, who at that time viewed everything in black and white.

In considerably less screen time, Rylance endears us to his prisoner, who is painfully aware of his chances of survival.

Bridge of Spies is an elegant, intelligent slice of popular entertainment that peppers its gripping intrigue with winning wit and humour!

Watch the trailer below:

 Sponsored by Crimson Multimedia.

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