‘Bridge of Spies” feels like two movies laid end-to-end, but both are so deftly handled that the divide hardly matters. The movie’s two faces also give director Steven Spielberg a chance to explore his dual interests: using history to comment on the present day, and executing old-school suspense.
The first section is the true saga of a New York lawyer, James B. Donovan (Tom Hanks), who was plucked from his profitable private practice to defend a Soviet spy, Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance), in the late 1950s.
Abel is obviously guilty of espionage — but not, as Donovan carefully points out, of treason — but what pricks Spielberg’s interest is the way Donovan is ostracized for performing a constitutional task. The Cold War lust to nail a Commie rat, and the contempt rained down on anyone who suggests that we ought to stick to American founding principles while nailing said rat, have an easy parallel in 21st-century history.
Yes, sometimes Spielberg (working from the screenplay by Matt Charman and the Coen brothers) gets a little Voice of America on us, which would be grating if his moviemaking skills weren’t so thrillingly on-point here.
The second part of the picture is Donovan’s unexpected role, a few years later, in negotiating a trade: Abel for Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell), the U.S. pilot shot down over Russia in 1960 while spying from his U-2 plane.
This section is all snowy East Berlin alleys and tense meetings in unheated rooms — exactly Spielberg’s cup of borscht. Nicely complicating the situation is the way Abel, the enemy, comes to be a sympathetic figure.
The British stage giant Rylance (“Wolf Hall”) gives a marvelously detailed performance as the kind of guy Spielberg appreciates — a schlub doing his job.
The director’s casting prowess is watertight, with every tiny role evocatively filled. The excellent Amy Ryan is underused as Donovan’s wife, but she sure looks the part; the rest of the roster is crowded with unfamiliar faces who precisely embody CIA agents or mid-level German functionaries of the late Eisenhower era.
The frozen peas ‘n’ carrots dished up for evening dinner, the way the men’s suit jackets hang a little loose around the middle — the film’s world rings true even if you don’t remember these things firsthand. (Clearly, Spielberg should’ve directed a “Mad Men” episode.) Even if it is two movies squashed into one, “Bridge of Spies” is an exemplary throwback.
“Bridge of Spies” (3½ stars)
A good period piece from Steven Spielberg, even if the film seems like two separate pictures. It’s the true story of a lawyer (Tom Hanks) who defended a Soviet spy (Mark Rylance), then later negotiated the exchange of his client for the downed U.S. pilot Francis Gary Powers. Great Cold War atmosphere, and Spielberg sneaks in a lesson about how mistakes of the past are still alive today.
Rating: PG-13 for violence
Showing: Alderwood, Cinebarre, Everett Stadium, Galaxy Monroe, Marysville, Stanwood Cinemas, Oak Tree, Pacific Place, Woodinville, Cascade Mall, Oak Harbor Plaza.
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