Returning to the suspense realm he so strikingly presented in Munich (2005), Steven Spielberg tackles the Cold War era in Bridge of Spies with resounding success. Tom Hanks stars as an unwitting spy straight out of Frank Capra. Hanks plays James Donovan, an insurance lawyer with no apparent political leanings (although he had worked as a prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials). When the New York Bar Association undergoes a lottery to pick an attorney to defend apprehended Soviet spy, Rudolf Abel. Hanks draws the short straw. His law firm boss (Alan Alda) preps Donovan with a nod and a wink as he flatly states the defense is meant to be no more than a response on behalf of a half-hearted show trial.
When Donovan takes the job seriously and digs deeply for his client, he quickly becomes a pariah. The backlash includes just about everybody including his immediate family. Given that it is Spielberg we are talking about, the Americana overflows out of Donovan’s home. His wife Mary (the ever-versatile Amy Ryan) is a dead ringer for Harriett Nelson or June Cleaver and, like all good 1950s TV dads, Donovan wears a tie to the dinner table and chuckles a lot. When someone shoots out his front window, scaring the hell out of his three kids, the stakes suddenly rise. They will continue to grow as Donovan (this time he’s asked rather than told) decides whether to head for East Berlin for some officially unofficial negotiating with mysterious Soviet operatives.
Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski evokes imagery that represents the long forsaken era with brilliant mood. Kaminski isn’t the only master craftsman on hand: the Matt Charman screenplay was rewritten by none other than the Coen Brothers as likely evidenced by the quirky witticisms prevalent once Donovan arrives in Germany.
So don’t write this one off as “old fashioned”–a quality that happens to be Bridge of Spies greatest strength. With Hanks putting forth full-blown Hanks-isms and a piercing performance by Peter Lorre-esque Mark Rylance as Abel, there is quite a bit going on in Bridge of Spies that elevates it above most films of its genre. Also, when it comes to it’s old-school nature, don’t kid yourself. A film this compassionate to an enemy spy would never have been given a chance to be made back in the Eisenhower years. As for modern-day relevance, Donovan prides himself on the U. S. Constitution rising above whatever the pragmatic concerns of a particular era–a timeless notion certainly equally vital in today’s war on terror.
Yet Donovan is no softie. Based on a real-life character who went on to negotiate bigtime deals on behalf of the American government (including the freeing of 9700 Americans and Cubans from Cuban jails in 1962), Donovan as portrayed by Hanks may seem offhand and in over his head. But he knows exactly what he’s doing in striving for the best deal. I would love to know if the Coen Brothers brought into the screenplay a very sharp reference connecting a Donovan tactic used in negotiating with the foreign agents with an earlier scene where he hustles a fellow insurance lawyer.