Movie · 2015 · Thriller, Drama · 2h 21m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 6.2/10 (581.4K ratings)
In the shadow of war, one man showed the world what we stood for.
Overview
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union captures U.S. pilot Francis Gary Powers after shooting down his U-2 spy plane. Sentenced to 10 years in prison, Powers' only hope is New York lawyer James Donovan, recruited by a CIA operative to negotiate his release. Donovan boards a plane to Berlin, hoping to win the young man's freedom through a prisoner exchange. If all goes well, the Russians would get Rudolf Abel, the convicted spy who Donovan defended in court.
Ratings
Curator score: 6.2/10
IMDb: 7.6/10
Letterboxd: 3.61/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 91%
Metacritic: 81
TMDB: 7.2/10
Director
Steven Spielberg
Production
TSG Entertainment, Amblin Entertainment, Studio Babelsberg, Fox 2000 Pictures, Marc Platt Productions, Participant
Cast
Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Amy Ryan, Alan Alda, Sebastian Koch, Austin Stowell, Billy Magnussen, Michael Simon Hall, Edward James Hyland, Stephen Kunken, Mike Houston, James Lorinz, Michael Power, Joe Starr, Merab Ninidze, Greg Nutcher, Scott Shepherd, Jesse Plemons, Domenick Lombardozzi, Eve Hewson
Curator Review
Verdict
A smart, restrained Cold War thriller that leans on negotiation, moral pressure, and Spielberg’s humane touch more than on espionage spectacle. It’s especially rewarding if you like historical dramas with adult performances, procedural tension, and a clear ethical center.
Best for
Viewers who like prestige historical dramas
Fans of measured spy stories and negotiation thrillers
Audiences who appreciate Spielberg’s more sober, political work
People drawn to courtroom and diplomacy-driven narratives
Skip if
You want fast-paced action or constant plot twists
You prefer cynical, twist-heavy espionage stories
You dislike earnest, old-school Hollywood humanism
You need a movie that feels edgy or aggressively modern
Overview
Bridge of Spies is one of Spielberg’s most controlled late-period films, a Cold War drama that finds suspense in procedure, patience, and principle. Rather than treating espionage as a game of gadgets and betrayals, it frames the story around a lawyer who keeps insisting that decency still matters, even when the world is built to punish it.
Worth noting
Tom Hanks gives the film its moral spine, playing James Donovan as steady, pragmatic, and quietly stubborn. Mark Rylance is just as important, bringing an eerie calm to Rudolf Abel that complicates every easy idea of enemy and ally. The movie’s pleasures come from conversation, negotiation, and the way Spielberg turns bureaucratic spaces into arenas of real danger.
Bottom line
It can feel deliberately genteel, and some viewers will wish for a harder edge or a sharper political bite. But the restraint is part of the design: this is a film about how civilization is tested in small rooms, by ordinary people, under extraordinary pressure. The result is polished, thoughtful, and more moving than it first appears.
Top Letterboxd reviews
davidehrlich (4★) · 844 likes
i will never forgive Spielberg for not calling this movie SALMON FISHING IN BERLIN.
but it's very good. if there's any movie at NYFF that *should* have been written by Aaron Sorkin... not that the Coen bros whiff, but this involving portrait of moral equivalence might be a touch too genteel where it could use a strong punch to the gut. though i'll admit i'm still wrestling with the wealth of contradictory information (visual and expository) that we're given in the final scene.
Sean Fennessey (4.5★) · 814 likes
Wildly overlooked. This feels like the summation of Spielberg getting politically scratchy circa 2000 and following through on his anxiety about the othering of people's humanity by way of political psychosis. I believe Hanks has only played a lawyer twice — Philadelphia and here — and in both cases he is a shrewd moral pragmatist trapped in a hypocritical quagmire. Modern day Jimmy Stewart, indeed.
Lucy (1★) · 578 likes
do you think they set out to make this dull as fuck or was it an accident
Josh Lewis (4★) · 384 likes
Think it was Dargis who pointed out this great quote from John Le Carré: "for how long can we defend ourselves by methods of this kind, and still remain the kind of society that is worth defending?" and though the literal 'methods' may have changed the call for humanity remains the same. It’s important that this is a series of backroom conversations between ordinary people, and that Hanks' Donovan is capable of shaping them to his goal not because he's a particularly great lawyer/negotiator but because of a basic conviction in decency. Hokey and reductive, sure, but effective all the same.
Olivia Craighead · 350 likes
huge representation for the “a little sick and wants to go home” community