Bridge of Spies Movie Review

Hello, fellow moviegoers!

  Steven Spielberg is widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. He exhilarates us with blockbusters like Indiana Jones, Jaws, and Jurassic Park. He fills us with joy with films like E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Hook, and The Adventures of Tintin. Impressively, Speilberg can also move us on an emotional level with dramas such as Lincoln, Saving Private Ryan, and Schindler’s List. It is the latter that he is trying to achieve with his newest film, Bridge of Spies.
  Bridge of Spies reunites this legendary director with one of the most talented actors at work today, Tom Hanks. It is the story of an American lawyer, James B. Donovan, who is contracted by the FBI to charter a negation with The Soviet Union. What are the items being negotiated? Spies from the opposing country. This film has had a lot of hype surrounding it. Deadline even goes as far to say that it is “One of Spielberg’s finest films”. Is it really that good?

  Bridge of Spies definitely suffers from being engulfed in its own shadow. With big names like director Steven Spielberg, co-writers Ethan and Joel Coen, and star Tom Hanks, it is easy to think that this could be the best movie of the year. Unfortunately, it underperforms.
I’m thinking that if these big names weren’t attached to the film, I may have enjoyed it a little more than I did. There was so much potential here that the film didn’t meet. That isn’t to say that this is a bad film. This is a very good film, I’m saying it should have been a great film.
The difficult thing is, I can’t place what it is I didn’t like. It felt like the film was missing something. I wasn’t really attached to these characters on an emotional level. I didn’t really care whether or not they succeeded.
  Tom Hanks, however, was very good in the film. The way he was able to portray all of the different little sentiments this character was feeling was very impressive indeed. It seems like I’m saying this with each new movie, but don’t be surprised if he gets nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role at the Oscars this year.
  One thing I did notice while watching this film was that it was very predictable. Almost from the very beginning, I was able to tell you what each character was going to do by the end of the story, and how the other characters would react. There were no big surprises in this film. It felt very by the numbers at times.
  It may seem like I didn’t like this movie, which I cannot disagree with more. This is a very good movie. However, I was very disappointed with this movie. It never really had anything separating it from any of the other movies this year. It lacked a lot of the substance that you would expect from a Steven Spielberg spy drama.
  I would, however, recommend you see this movie if you enjoy films like this. If cold-war spy thrillers are your thing, then have a ball. Again, it was a very good movie. It definitely wasn’t what we have come to expect from Steven Spielberg though.
7/10

  So have you seen Bridge of Spies? What did you think? How does this film compare to Spielberg’s other films? Let me know by commenting on this post!
 
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