Steven Spielberg’s latest film, “Bridge of Spies”, is a drama set in the Cold War and stars Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, and Austin Stowell.

Unsurprisingly, this film delivers with superb dialogue, great acting, and a director who has successfully captured the nature of a harrowing conflict that occurred at the height of tensions between America and the Soviet Union.

The film revolves around Hanks’s character James B. Donovan, an insurance lawyer from New York, who is volunteered by his firm to represent the defense of Rudolf Abel.

Abel, portrayed by Rylance, is arrested by the FBI and charged with committing espionage by acting as a spy for Russia. Despite facing the death penalty, Abel remains calm and collected at all times. It is this calmness that occasionally prompts Donovan to ask, “Aren’t you worried?”

“Would it help?” is always Abel’s reply.

Scenes featuring conversations between Hanks and Rylance are where this film really shines. Initially hesitant to defend a foreign spy, Donovan soon realizes every human deserves the rights upheld by the Constitution of the United States, even the enemy.

Donovan manages to save Abel from execution, but then the plot really picks up.

Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell), piloting a U-2 spy plane for the United States, is shot down in Russian airspace and captured. The remainder of the film, which has a running time of nearly two and a half hours, deals with a potential exchange that would return the two spies home.

While “Bridge of Spies” is thoroughly enjoyable, it is not without its quips.

Written by Matt Charman and the Coen brothers—Ethan and Joel—the screenplay and dialogue between characters are expertly carried out. However, there were many times throughout the film where the audience chuckled during on-screen conversations. 

That humor felt out of place. The laugh-out-loud moments, which in this reviewer’s opinion occurred much too often, take away from what could have been opportunities to instead capture the drama and portray the seriousness of the situation the characters were in.

Verdict: “Bridge of Spies”, the latest collaboration between Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, offers everything the public has come to expect from two of Hollywood’s biggest heavyweights. Excellent acting and a driven plot highlight this project. The dialogue is also great, but the prominent humor feels out of place in most places. This film is a must-see for any American history buff.