A Spy Drama, Superb and Hopeful

No one makes movies like Steven Spielberg. With old-fashioned craftsmanship, Spielberg, the master storyteller, takes a true story that some of us will remember and infuses it with both earnestness and optimism. It’s the story of an early 1960s cold war spy-swap, the kind that John LeCarré would have cloaked in gloom and darkness, shifting morality and, ultimately, futile gamesmanship. 

But working with a terrific screenplay from 36-year-old British writer Matt Charman, punched up  by Joel and Ethan Coen, with their knack for telling absurdity and fleet dialogue, Spielberg has given us a film that resonates with the belief of one man in the protections of the Constitution for every accused person, of criminal judicial procedure and, finally, the power of face-to-face negotiation. 

The story concerns Russian spy Rudolph Abel (Mark Rylance), U2 surveillance pilot Gary Powers (Austin Stowell), who was shot down and captured by the Soviets, and civilian insurance lawyer James Donovan (Tom Hanks), who is chosen first to defend Abel in his espionage trial and then to negotiate with the Soviets to exchange Abel for Powers. (The movie’s title comes from the Glienecke Bridge, connecting East and West Berlin, where these exchanges took place by night, with snipers from both sides poised to take their man out in case of a double cross.)

  The film opens brilliantly with a cat-and-mouse chase in which Abel, moving through the New York City subway system, eludes a battalion of FBI agents as he moves to retrieve a hollow coin containing a secret code stuck under a park bench. The editing ratchets up the suspense with details, and — unusual for Spielberg — there is no music (that will come later); only the sounds of the city. Rylance, who is understated and brilliant, gives Abel a quiet, inscrutable sense of irony with his vaguely Scottish accent, shining eyes behind nondescript glasses and shabby, too-large clothes. 

Once caught — actually the FBI battalion invades his small apartment — he is arrested and quickly brought to trial, with Donovan trying every move to counter the resolve of everyone, including the presiding judge, to find Abel guilty and execute him. Donovan finally succeeds in suggesting that, alive, Abel could someday be a bargaining chip in a spy exchange. So Abel is imprisoned.

In no time, Powers is shot down — the story of the U2 flights has been given to us parallel to Abel’s — and the United States government decides Donovan is the man to work a deal. Now it’s Mr. Donovan goes to Berlin, and Hanks is every bit as sincere, determined, clever and wily as Jimmy Stewart was in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” Hanks, with a face heavier now and filled with deep furrows, is perfectly cast. As the movie enters the icy winter of a divided Berlin, it is filled with a monochromatic, wasteland beauty that will remind some of Vienna in “The Third Man.” Spielberg lets the tension build naturally, inexorably, with every snowflake.

“Bridge of Spies” does not blow us away with surprise or blood, and there are no real villains. Instead it treats us as adults and entertains us with the mastery of its making and the brilliance of its two protagonists. Of course you will like Donovan, but as he did, you may come to respect and even like Abel, too. Spielberg, Hanks and Rylance are all superb.

“Bridge of Spies” is playing widely. It is rated PG-13.