I knew
very little about this movie going in, other than that it was presumably about
the Cold War, Tom Hanks was in it, it had the look of an Oscar movie, and it gave
off Spielberg vibes (though I didn’t realize it actually was a Spielberg film.) While
I find it to be interesting and well-made, I’d probably rank it behind the
other three best picture nominees I’ve seen so far.
This “based
on a true story” film centers on James Donovan, a good lawyer tasked with a
very undesirable job: defending Rudolf
Abel, an accused Russian spy. The
higher-ups explain that they have to give the impression of not running a kangaroo court, and so even though the
guilty verdict is basically inevitable, they need a credible attorney defending
him. Donovan takes the case and is
almost universally reviled when he then does his job and gives his client the
best defense he can. This places him in
an incredibly difficult position, but sometime later, it also makes him the
prime candidate for another highly sensitive job. This time, he’s brought in to arrange the delicate
prisoner exchange of Abel for captured U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers.
Since I
only knew the historical basics on Powers and nothing about Donovan
specifically, I had no idea where the film was going, which made for an
interesting viewing experience. I was
kind of baffled when the movie gave a lot of buildup to a trial we didn’t
really see, but of course, that’s not what the film really centers around. It’s not the trial itself – it’s Donovan’s
association with Abel and his conduct throughout, both of which lead to his
role in the Abel-for-Powers swap. It was
a different sort of experience for me, waiting to figure out what the film was
about.
One
thing I had no idea of was the fact
that this movie was co-written by the Coen Brothers (who, along with fellow
writer Mark Charman, are up for best original screenplay.) That completely shocked me during the end
credits, but looking back, I can see it.
Not only is the story set up very well, but it also contains a
surprising amount of quirky, incidental humor for a movie about
war/espionage/interrogation/what it means to be a patriot or a traitor. There are random off-the-wall quips that are
sort of startling but also really fun, as well as nice little human touches
throughout. I imagine that many of these
moments come down to the Coen influence.
This
might seem like an unfair critique, but my biggest gripe with the movie is that
it feels kind of routine. Compared to
the other best picture nominees I’ve seen – Mad
Max: Fury Road, The Martian, and The Big
Short – it seems obvious, a safe and familiar choice. It’s very well done, but it doesn’t really
capture my interest like the other three do.
(And I suppose it doesn’t help that I don’t think it measures up to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, my favorite
Cold War spy movie.)
As
Donovan, Tom Hanks is just as good as you expect him to be. I’m not sure what it is – even though, for
me, the majority of Hanks’s characters feel very much like Hanks, they still
work really well. Nominated supporting
actor Mark Rylance (who I mainly know from his wonderfully-bizarre Tony Award acceptance
speeches) gives a nice, understated performance as Abel, and Amy Ryan gets in a
few good scenes as Donovan’s wife.
Warnings
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