Bridge of Spies - Movie Review

From its quiet opening scene alone, ‘Bridge of Spies’ taps the audience’s shoulder and whispers “just so you know, this is a classic you are about to see”. The use of very minimal dialogue and the only sound mostly coming from your pulse pumping from mystery, it proves Steven Spielberg, with an unquestionable talent in directing fantastically, is here to stay for more time to come.

The movie reunites Spielberg with long-time collaborator Tom Hanks, on their 4th work together after The Terminal tackling the story of U.S. lawyer James B. Donovan in the most pivotal part of his life defending an alleged Soviet spy during the U.S.-Soviet Union war. Spielberg has likened to talk historical figures pulling out civilians to freedom in his films. Obviously we got Oskar Schindler in 'Schindler’s List' and his most recent Abraham Lincoln in 'Lincoln' to name a few. But Donovan can be compared to the former as someone who is unsure of doing this heroic rescue from the start until he realized the point and nature of doing so. We certainly get that development in Donovan, even coming to the point of trying not to give up his mission regardless of death threats in his career.

On the side of Donovan is Rudolph Abel, played by the extremely talented Mark Rylance, who I am ashamed of for not knowing his name until the release of this movie. Rylance was easily the best part of the movie whose character Abel was neither scared nor brave on the course of his trial. The biggest emotion we got from him was forcing an officer to let him clean off his paint palette. But I am speaking that as a praise for the actor, because he is a no-show and tell here and simply allows the viewers to decipher what is actually up to this character, and I love that.

The movie tries to establish a relationship between Donovan and Abel, as seen in the film’s chilling (no pun intended) climax, but didn’t pay off pretty well since the movie didn’t went there that often from the start.

The film is penned by Joel and Ethan Coen, and their trademark quips of dark humor is evident here (the marmalade scene did laugh everyone up), but it is still Spielberg’s show despite of the amount of talents included here. One cannot deny the capability of this director, that just a thought of a new “Spielberg film” would spark quality in everyone’s eyes. ‘Bridge of Spies’ is one of the best Spielberg movie lately, and it’s mostly because of how it feels like the old-fashioned classic spy thrillers we’ve had. The running time might be a long stretch but trust me it’s never boring.

The geek rates it 8/10!

'Bridge of Spies' is now showing in cinemas nationwide from 20th Century Fox Philippines!