Review Roundup: Tom Hanks and Mark Rylance Star in BRIDGE OF SPIES

BRIDGE OF SPIES shows true events in Brooklyn lawyer James Donovan's life that capture the essence of a man who risked everything and vividly brings his personal journey to life.

A dramatic thriller set against the backdrop of a series of historic events, BRIDGE OF SPIES tells the story of James Donovan, a Brooklyn lawyer who finds himself thrust into the center of the Cold War when the CIA sends him on the near-impossible task to negotiate the release of a captured American U-2 pilot.

Directed by three-time Academy Award®-winning director Steven Spielberg, BRIDGE OF SPIES stars two-time Academy Award winner Tom Hanks, three-time Tony Award winner Mark Rylance, Scott Shepherd, Academy Award nominee Amy Ryan, Sebastian Koch, and Academy Award nominee Alan Alda. The screenplay is by Matt Charman and three-time Academy Award winners Ethan Coen & Joel Coen.

Let's see what the critics had to say!

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Like some of Mr. Spielberg's other recent movies, notably "Lincoln" and "Munich," this one is a meticulously detailed period piece that revisits the anxieties of the past while also speaking to those of the present. Yet it also feels lighter than those films, less weighted down by accreted history or maybe by a sense of duty to its significance. There are still stirring speeches and swells of important music - this is Steven Spielberg - yet for all the darkness there is also laughter, which finally may be the only reasonable response to the specter of worldwide nuclear annihilation.

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Who doesn't like to cozy up to an old-school spy thriller that knows how to build tension and tighten it? Bridge of Spies may be a snooze to the ADD crowd allergic to historical drama, but it's dished out by experts.

Peter Debruge, Variety: It's no small feat turning a shyster and an enemy spy into national heroes, but that's the unique achievement of Steven Spielberg's "Bridge of Spies." If Jimmy Stewart were alive today, the director surely would have asked him to play James Donovan, a noble New York insurance lawyer roped into providing an alleged Soviet agent with pro-bono legal representation, who later goes on to broker his exchange for two Americans held captive by Commies. Failing that, he'd done one better and cast honorary Boy Scout and all-around good guy Tom Hanks in the role, transforming a potential indictment of patriotic hypocrisy and Cold War subterfuge into a riveting, feel-good time for the whole family (two instances of the "F-word" notwithstanding), putting it on track to top "War Horse."

Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair: Bridge of Spies is smart, and thoughtfully made. It's just a straightforward kind of a film, light on agenda and ending on a perhaps not exactly earned note of corny American uplift.

Kristen Page-Kirby, The Washington Post: The spies are the least important part of "Bridge of Spies." Instead, it's Donovan's movie, and Hanks ably carries the film. And Spielberg can be forgiven for the stylistic overreaching thanks to the many moments that pack an emotional wallop.

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian: With terrific craftsmanship, pure storytelling gusto and that Midas-touch ability to find grounds for optimism everywhere, Steven Spielberg has dramatized a true-life cold war spy-swap drama, starring Tom Hanks and Mark Rylance. Those brought up on John Le Carré might perhaps expect from this moral equivalence, shabby compromise and exhausted futility. But Spielberg, with his gift for uncynicism, uncovers decency and moral courage amidst all theRealpolitik. He works from an excellent screenplay by up-and-coming British dramatist Matt Charman, a script punched up in recognizable places by Joel and Ethan Coen.

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: "Bridge of Spies," Steven Spielberg's best film since "Saving Private Ryan," stars a flawless Tom Hanks in the smart, old-school thriller as James Donovan, a Brooklyn lawyer who risked his life to free an American spy whose plane was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960.

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: Based on real events and a script by Matt Charman and Joel and Ethan Coen (who display, yes, the same old-fashioned, patriotic, and sober fingerprints they left on their screenplay for last year'sUnbroken - though this is a much better film), Bridge of Spies is like Capra with a dash of le Carré. Hanks is in his comfort zone as Donovan, showing us a decent man grappling with history and his own civic ideals. But there's also a rascally twinkle in his eye that shows us that Donovan is more than just a red-white-and-blue father and husband in over his head. Part of him is getting off on the cloak-and-dagger rush of it all. It's the actor's best performance sinceSaving Private Ryan. Meanwhile, Rylance, who's still probably best known for his brilliant work on stage, is the film's real breakout discovery. With his musical Northern English accent and bemused, ironic demeanor, he turns a story that could feel as musty as a yellowed stack of old newspapers snap to exuberant life.

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: A feel-good Cold War melodrama, Bridge of Spies is an absorbing true-life espionage tale very smoothly handled by old pros who know what they're doing. In its grown-up seriousness and basis in historical conflict, Steven Spielberg's first feature since Lincoln three years ago joins the list of the director's half-dozen previous "war" films, but in its honoring of an American civilian who pulled off a smooth prisoner exchange between the East and West during a very tense period, the film generates an unmistakable nostalgia for a time when global conflict seemed more clear-cut and manageable than it does now. Spielberg's fourth collaboration with Tom Hanks, which world-premiered at the New York Film Festival and opens commercially on October 16, looks to generate stout box-office returns for Disney through the autumn season.

Pete Hammond, Deadline: Bridge Of Spies is a towering achievement and a high point in the careers of Spielberg, Hanks and the Coens. Easily one of this year's best.

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