A Movie Review: Bridge of Spies

Bridge of Spies. The movie opens up with James Donovan (Tom Hanks) negotiating an insurance settlement. His career was as an insurance lawyer and based on the opening scene, he was a very good negotiator. Even though he was perhaps in a mundane career as an insurance lawyer, we also learn in the film that he was a lawyer at the Nuremberg trials.

 Around the same time, a Russian spy named Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) is captured by the FBI. It is determined that he should be given a trial. The one problem is that no lawyer wants to take the case of defending a Russian spy. Donovan's law firm approaches him about taking the case. He resists, but eventually decides to take the case.

Donovan takes his duties as Abel's lawyer seriously. Even though various forces pressure him to not go all out for his client, he still does.

When an American air force pilot is captured in Russia, Donovan is asked to negotiate the release of the pilot in exchange for Abel.

This is a movie about a man with high ethics, willing to take on an unpopular case and giving it everything he has. And in the end, it pays off in a wonderful way. The movie also has some nice little three dimensional chess match of a negotiation where the American outwits his Russian and East German counterparts, because the other two refuse to communicate properly with each other.

Though this movie definitely keeps the audience involved, I do think there are some flaws that make it an above average movie, but not a great one. First, I think the editing could be tightened up a bit. A love story between Donovan's daughter and his legal assistant is briefly highlighted at the beginning of the movie and then is never discussed again. Why not just edit this out? Second, the American vs. Russian vs East German negotiations plays more for laughs than for tension. I'd rather have seen the tension highlighted.