Bridge of Spies (2015)

** ½ out of ****

I love Tom Hanks as an actor, and I love Steven Spielberg as a director. They've both done incredible, significant work and are rightly icons of the movie industry. But when they work together, they seem to want to wrap themselves in the American flag and yell “Remember the Alamo”. They've done some really nice work together (most specifically “Catch Me If You Can” 2002) but for the most part their collaborations are built around saying “look how great we are in America”.

“Bridge of Spies” is slightly less rah-rah than “Saving Private Ryan” or “Band of Brothers”, but mainly because the lead character is much MORE rah-rah. He's like John Mclean in “Die Hard” - one man, fighting against everyone, up against ridiculous odds, who pulls out the win for the good ol' U S of A thanks to his balls of steel and never-say-die attitude. Yawn.

Hanks is James Donovan, an insurance lawyer tapped to defend a KGB spy, Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) in his espionage trial in 1957. The film ignores Donovan's prior experience with the CIA, which I guess makes him more of an unlikely character when in reality it made him a logical choice. After accepting the case he is basically alone – his firm isn't supporting him, the judge and entire system of jurisprudence are against him and his client, and it would seem that all of American hates him for defending the spy. But Donovan wrapps himself in the red- white and blue and stands alone in his support of the justice system's tenant that everyone deserves the best possible defense.

This is where I felt the film was weakest – Donovan is reviled by America, his house shot up with his kids inside (which in reality never happened), abandoned even by the law partner that assigned him the case, even his own family is against him. The screenwriters probably felt it made him more heroic to be so starkly alone, but I felt it just made it a bit silly. And I hate to say that about either Hanks or Spielberg, but it's the truth.

More interesting is the Francis Gary Powers aspect of the film. Powers was the U2 spy-plane pilot shot down over Russia in 1960. I can forgive the fact that the timelines are all screwed up (the movie makes it appear it all happened at the same time when it was actually years apart). Donovan is tapped by the CIA to go to East Berlin to negotiate the exchange of Abel for Powers. Donovan's ability to read people also allowed him to negotiate a second release of an American student, Frederick Pryor (Will Rogers). The film makes Pryor a completely innocent victim in all this, despite the assertion by the East Germans that he was taking reconnaissance photos. This second part of the movie is much more interesting than the first half, and far more fun to watch.

Overall this isn't a bad movie. But historical dramas that turn into chest-beating never work for me the way the filmmakers intend them to. “Bridge of Spies” is nominated the Best Picture, but if you ask me it doesn't deserve it – the nomination is built on the reputations of the principals and the silly nationalistic bent that for some reason so appeals to the Academy.

Worth seeing, but in the grand scheme of things, ultimately forgettable.