Bridge of Spies

In 1957, New York lawyer James Donovan (Tom Hanks) is court-appointed for the defense at the trial of Soviet spy Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance), with conviction virtually a foregone conclusion. Five years later, Donovan is sent (unofficially) to Berlin to negotiate a swap: Abel in return for U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell), shot down on a “reconnaissance” mission over the Soviet Union. Director Steven Spielberg and writers Matt Charman and Joel and Ethan Coen revisit one of the Cold War's iconic moments, with a little forgivable dramatic license (the trial scenes are a trifle overwrought, allowing Rylance by his calm composure to steal every scene he's in). Once Donovan reaches Berlin things settle down, and Spielberg nicely captures the aura of frosty suspicion at the heart of the Cold War. J.L.