Film Review: Bridge Of Spies

Starring: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Austin Stowell

Run-time: 2h 21m

Plot:

During the Cold War, an American lawyer is recruited to defend an arrested Soviet spy in court, and then help the CIA facilitate an exchange of the spy for the Soviet captured American U2 spy plane pilot, Francis Gary Powers.

(Source: IMDb- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3682448/)

I think the movie started out brilliantly. It started with the scene that made you wonder what was happening, so you were hooked from the first moment.

The movie was a serious one, but the well-timed jokes were excellent. At first, I expected it to be a dramatic-sort of movie - much like many others, where the would base the story around the war or certain events of the war, but this concentrated more on the "technical" side of the war; things that happened in the background. It took me a moment to realise that since the movie was inspired/based on true events, it couldn't have (and shouldn't have) been over-dramatic. This was one of the reasons why I thought that the movie felt very real (you realise that things from your history books are ACTUAL things that have happened).

I especially love when they make movies or shows showing under-appreciated events or people during the war times because in history lessons, you never actually learn about them apart from the events that we usually hear about. When you see success stories (or even failed stories, for that matter) during these times, it makes you realise that these are ACTUAL people and ACTUAL events.

Though the movie seemed quite long, it was really shot well and Tom Hanks, once again, played his role incredibly! (I'm not biased towards Tom Hanks, okay! :3)

-Shifa

We went in to the cinema expecting a brilliant film because of such a killer cast (not to be biased, but especially Tom Hanks!). But what we got was so much more!

I absolutely loved this film and I think it's so important because it addresses some very necessary, important and basic humanity requirements. I already knew halfway through the film that it was going to be an incredible one. 

Furthermore, I really like war movies/books because we have studied about it (the World Wars and the Cold War) in school and so, it's close to my heart. Also, this film was like Goodnight Mister Tom (novel by Michelle Magorian) in the sense that it was set in the war time, but didn't actually revolve around it all that heavily, and this made me like the movie even more. 

Lastly, I don't even have to mention this, but the acting was absolutely brilliant. I must however mention one point: they didn't give us a feel of Russian/German lawyers and their side of the story.

All in all, a brilliantly shot film. 

-Safa

Rating: 10/10