Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg warm up the Cold War in Bridge of Spies

THE new Steven Spielberg drama, based on true Cold War events involving US lawyer James B. Donovan, is really two films in one.

THE new Steven Spielberg drama, based on true Cold War events involving US lawyer James B. Donovan (Tom Hanks), is really two films in one.

The first is a courtroom drama. In 1957, when Soviet agent Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) is apprehended by the FBI in Brooklyn, Donovan is approached to be his defence counsel, in a demonstration to the world that American justice is fair and balanced even when it comes to their opponents in the nuclear arms race.

In the best Atticus Finch tradition, Donovan takes on the unpopular case, and takes it seriously, because it’s the right thing to do, though he attracts increasingly dark looks from subway commuters and family members.

Tom Hanks appears in a scene from Bridge of Spies.

This legal morality play morphs into an espionage thriller when a US spy plane is downed over Russia and a young pilot, Gary Powers (Austin Stowell), is captured.

The CIA, needing a non-government go-between to negotiate a prisoner swap in East Berlin behind the newly erected Berlin Wall, picks Donovan for the job.

Spielberg (working with a script by the Coen brothers and Matt Charman) takes pains to draw equivalences between the shady activities of both sides.

East and West are equally culpable and equally sneaky: it’s no wonder that trust is in short supply on both sides.

Hanks is his usual everyman hero, fumbling his way behind the Iron Curtain, although in addition to folksy likability his character has an insurance lawyer’s cunning that’s a fair match for the obfuscations of the Stasi and the KGB. Amy Ryan and Alan Alda play Donovan’s wife and boss respectively but it’s Rylance (recently seen in thriller The Gunman) who gives the standout performance.

Tom Hanks, second left, Amy Ryan, centre, and Alan Alda, right, appear in a scene from Bridge of Spies.

As the captured Soviet operative with a fondness for painting portraits, he’s soft-spoken and world-weary; a grey little man straight out of a John le Carre novel.

“I’m not afraid to die, Mr Donovan,” he says while contemplating the electric chair. “Although it wouldn’t be my first choice.”

The film’s two strands dovetail around this intriguing figure, with a pay-off that’s a tribute to the power of diplomacy, injecting a dose of Spielbergian heart and hopefulness into a genre normally characterised by paranoia and nihilism.

It’s not a movie about saving the world, even though the world needs saving, but rather the small, personal actions that can build bridges.

Opens Thursday

Nick Dent is print director, Time Out Australia

BRIDGE OF SPIES

Released by 20th Century Fox

Star rating 4/5

Director Steven Spielberg

Starring Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Amy Ryan

Rating M

Running time 141 minutes

Verdict Hanks and Spielberg warm up the Cold War

Originally published as Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg warm up the Cold War in Bridge of Spies