@yuna_yThe pitch for Bridge of Spies sounds like a spy thriller, and that's exactly what it refuses to be. What you get instead is an insurance lawyer: no clearance, no backup, zero patience for nonsense, and somehow he comes out ahead against his Cold War opponents. Tom Hanks never plays him as a hero. The whole attitude sits closer to I'm not a hero, I'm just doing my job, and that's what makes the performance land. The plot turns on a Soviet spy who's been captured while everyone around him wants him hanged. One lawyer argues that actually, due process still exists. Later that same lawyer is handed a prisoner exchange to work out, in a place the film treats as the most hostile on the planet, with no weapons, leaning only on principles. So it isn't really a spy thriller at all. It's a story about quiet people changing history, and honestly that's the most American thing a movie can be.

@yuna_yThe pitch for Bridge of Spies sounds like a spy thriller, and that's exactly what it refuses to be. What you get instead is an insurance lawyer: no clearance, no backup, zero patience for nonsense, and somehow he comes out ahead against his Cold War opponents. Tom Hanks never plays him as a hero. The whole attitude sits closer to I'm not a hero, I'm just doing my job, and that's what makes the performance land. The plot turns on a Soviet spy who's been captured while everyone around him wants him hanged. One lawyer argues that actually, due process still exists. Later that same lawyer is handed a prisoner exchange to work out, in a place the film treats as the most hostile on the planet, with no weapons, leaning only on principles. So it isn't really a spy thriller at all. It's a story about quiet people changing history, and honestly that's the most American thing a movie can be.