Movie Review : Bridge of Spies

“I thought that dad had gone fishing!” – says the daughter of James Donovan (Tom Hanks), primarily an Insurance lawyer, as she hears the news of her father’s foreign trip making national headlines. Where was Donovan? Why was he on the TV? Well, in an enthralling 2 hours, this movie recreates the Hanks-Spielberg magic once again. Set in 1950s-60s, the movie keeps throwing back images from the duo’s well acclaimed “Catch me if you can”.

The Cold war has kept the world on its toes. With both US and USSR, fearing actions and reactions, the movie captures an essential humane aspect of the life of spies. Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) was suspected of spying for Russians in America and put in American prison. To ensure that he got a “fair trial”, the US appoints the initially hesitant Donovan to fight the case on Abel’s side. Donovan loses the case, but resolves to take the fight to the Supreme Court. Never questioning whether Abel was indeed a spy, Donovan develops into an empathizing lawyer, who wants to see a “spy who was doing his duty for his country”, be shown leniency. While Donovan succeeds in getting the death sentence commuted to imprisonment, the essence lay in the logic of argument he uses to convince the judge to keep Abel alive, which eventually becomes a reality allowing a ray of hope for Abel to return to his country. Twist comes when an American fighter pilot is captured by the Russians. What follows is a gripping and intense drama that unfolds nervous moments and new developments that increases the scope of the back-channel role that the US government entrusts Donovan with. The effort Donovan takes to bring another young American college student detained in East Germany, shows the strength of his character. What is the role that Donovan plays in the entire episode? Does he succeed in his mission or does he aggravate the prevailing condition for the worst?

Tom Hanks is God of such roles, impeccable and honest. He is very well supported by Mark Rylance who is by no means a second fiddle to Hanks, but an equal partner in all his scenes with the veteran. When Hanks asks him repeatedly in the movie “Shouldn’t you be worried?” he answers as stoically as one can, and every time, “Would that help”, carrying the dialogue with utmost conviction, in what makes the audience appreciate the scene with teary giggle. He evokes a sense of sympathy, akin to one you have for Tom Hanks in The Terminal. Spielberg, like Hitchcock, knows how to set context through scenes. In an opening scene where Hanks argues how an accident involving an accident involving 5 people, is just “one incident” and not “discrete set of 5 incidents”, manifests itself later when dealing with the Russians.

Overall this movie is a great watch. Get hold of this movie at the cinema halls before they bring it down. 

The Martian – A review

Set under a pretext of a Mars mission of NASA, The Martian is a good light-on-the-mind movie. Should scientific intricacy be the trigger point for wanting to watch Space focused movies, this will disappoint you, especially if you have seen the likes of Armageddon and Apollo 13.  However, if you are in maddening love with Matt Damon or the red planet and possibilities of nurturing life there, book your tickets.

Based on Andy Weir’s 2011 novel by the same name, this movie has a powerful performance by the protagonist Mark Watney, played by Matt Damon. Hit by a storm, the crew of Ares III, the spaceship, had to leave the planet without Mark, who was feared dead in the furious storm, only to be realize later he was alive. It’s an inspiring journey thereon of a man fighting to survive on an uninhabited planet. Where his supplies can last only for a few days, Mark does not give up. With his Botany knowledge to his rescue, Mark cultivates potatoes to keep himself alive till the next shuttle would come for his rescue, improvises on the rover to reach the landing site of Ares IV, which had some infrastructure already planted by NASA and devises a communication mechanism with NASA engineers at Cape Canaveral. But all these is not without their share of additional challenges.

Dabbled with spurts of humorous one liners, the movie has some mind-catching monologues, be it one where Mark, after having grown potatoes on the red planet successfully, poses for camera and says “It might sound arrogant, but I am the best Botanist on the planet” or when he refers to Neil Armstrong, mocking the great’s achievements as nothing when compared to his own, being the first one to do anything on Mars. Science Nazis would have loved to see Ridley Scott (the Director) depict the gravitational difference (Mars’s being 40% of Earth’s) in the movie, but clearly he chose to ignore, as Mark walked on the planet as he would probably do on Earth.  

What happens in the end? Does he succeed at surviving? Do the crew return to rescue their own or would NASA veto any such decision by the former against risking the lives of the rest? These are some questions that will keep you hooked in what is portrayed as a see-saw struggle for survival. The Guardian’s comparing Matt’s act with the great Tom Hank’s Castaway performance and an 8.4 rating on IMDb, surely makes a strong case to watch; just don’t go expecting an Interstellar or Gravity.