Bridges of Spies

When Steven Spielberg casts Tom Hanks in a movie set in the Cold War era, the mere idea gives you goose bumps. Yes, this duo has given us some extraordinary movies including Saving Private Ryan and Catch Me If You Can. What do they have to offer this time?

This time, the plot is lot more sedate. It is drama, driven almost entirely by dialogue, without much of a suspense element. It is almost the journey of a man who is thrown into the deep end unexpectedly and outgrows himself, exceeds all expectations, within a very short period, willingly going far outside his comfort zones to achieve things he might or might not get any credit for. He is the man who goes out of his way because he believes there is a job, however unrewarding, to be done.

We are shown an insurance lawyer who is good at what he does. Yes, he knows how to use words, how to define his clients and is very particular about who is referred to in what terms. In fact, he appears very much the regular lawyer whose bread and butter lies in the favorable interpretations he can work out from the law of the land. But one day he is asked to do a ‘thankless’ job, defend a national enemy! Of course he is reluctant to do it at first, but when he gets going he becomes more serious about it than anyone likes! But his conscience as a lawyer to do the best possible for his ‘client’ leaves a window open, a window which will take him all the way behind enemy lines in Berlin.

Bridges of Spies is a very understated drama. No emotional outbursts, no overt expressions of joy or

grief, just men doing their job oblivious of what the world thinks about them. In fact that is one of the last lines spoken in the movie, ‘You know what you did, that’s what matters. Not what others think.’ It pretty much sums up the character of James Donovan, played with expert restrain by Tom Hanks. In many ways the character may be an extension of Carl Hanratty from Catch Me If You Can; the man who goes from America to France to bring back an American. Here too the task is similar, but the reasons and motives are entirely different. And Tom Hanks brings out subtle differences in the way he plays these two men. That he is not a man with experience or authority is evident in his body language, but his determination to complete his task at an cost makes itself evident. Other characters are not really given enough time to grow into the script, which is why perhaps the final ‘exchange’ fails to evoke emotions in the audience. The only other character you can really connect to is Rudolf Abel, and you wonder, as does James Donovan, on whether he ever feels any fear or doubt or worry, to which he always has the same reply. But, you do sense the bond growing in between them.

One thinks that Steven Spielberg achieved exactly what he wanted to through this movie. There doesn’t seem to be any intention of making a thriller or an intense suspense drama or an emotional rescue story. He just wants to show us that a man, as regular a guy as it gets, can exceed all our expectations, and maybe his own, when the hour is right. Bridges of Spies attempts to be no more than a closely followed character graph of James B Donovan as he transforms amazingly from a regular lawyer to somebody special. For that reason, Bridges of Spies is not exciting, or gripping, but it is through every single minute, engaging. You will love the restraint Tom Hanks put into his performance, you have to admire the restraint Spielberg showed in the making. This is the work of a master who knows exactly how much to do with a script without letting his reputation get in the way! Please do not approach this movie with the baggage of a Saving Private Ran or Catch Me If You Can. This may be more like The Terminal, but toned down even further!

Thoroughly engaging subtle drama

3.5/5

THE WALK

When an entire script is built around a single final incident, the entire film making process becomes a tight rope walk! In many ways The Walk is much like a heist movie, except no one is being robbed here, but all things in the movie lead up to the final coup, which is what the protagonist likes to call the act that he committed. That is pretty much what the movie is all about. The director make no attempt to hide where the story is going, everything is laid out right at the start. You are told that this is going to happen; just sit back and watch how it happens. Now that will work only when the final event is worth the wait even when you know what it is! Is it worth the wait? Absolutely! It is possibly one of the craziest things ever attempted. If there is anything even crazier, a movie has to be made about it.

Starting in the idyllic locales of France, The Walk traces the journey of Philippe Petit as he goes from

Paris to New York in search of the ultimate high wire! Yes, the movie traces his growth from the wonder eyed kid who just wanted to get onto wires tied higher and higher and higher. Of course, it is not something anyone can do or perfect without being taught the vitals of the trade and that is where comes Papa Rudy, played quite masterfully by Ben Kingsley! The exchanges between the master and prodigy are some of the best passages in the build up to the final act. How the master breaks the ego of his pupil, how he imparts him the small nuggets that will one day make him steady on the highest wire ever, and how they finally realize that they have perhaps built a bond that is greater than master and pupil!

The other element that adds charm to the build up the coup is of course the relationship between Philippe and Annie. We are not sure what it is, whether the really are in love, or are they just admirers of each other’s craft, and the way it ends does leave us a bit flummoxed. But it adds color and charm while it is there. The other factor that keeps the movie going without a boring phase are the accomplices who join along the way, the best perhaps being the mathematics teacher who is terrified of heights! Also, the guy who wants to be involved in anything that is ‘high’ is hilarious. Every accomplice brings a different shade which holds the script together until the final act takes over.

Once the final act begins, it is just the two towers, the wire and the man on it. The process of getting

the wire up too is told in quite a taut manner, with the final few minutes of the set up, and the ‘unknown visitor’ being the best parts. And then in his own words, ‘he shifts his weight and becomes a wire walker’. The next 20 minutes or so, watch it in theaters because they are absolutely arresting. There might be moments in the movie where you wonder how a movie about a coup can be so deprived of excitement. The answer is that Robert Zemekis knew that he had enough ammunition in the final act to make up for anything that you felt was missing in the preceding time.

The set-up of the high wire, the actual execution of the coup of getting up on the tower without authorization might look a bit watered down, a bit plain. But, one thinks that is how it was intended, to be kept real and not unnecessarily dramatic. The background score remains true to this feel.

We are taken through the movie through the memories, eyes and voice of Philippe Petit played with infectious enthusiasm by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. It is his mischievous demeanor that makes us believe that he really means to pull off this outrageous stunt. Of course he has his outbursts, he has his doubts, but he never takes a backward step. And if he is fire, Annie is the ice and Charlotte Le Bon brings all her calmness on screen.  The only thing one felt could have been different about the movie is the constant voice over that is being given by Philippe who is narrating his story to us. Yes, there are points where his explanations let us grasp things that are not too obvious, but he really doesn’t need to tell us how he feels on top of the high wire because we can see the spectacle for ourselves.

That is what The Walk is all about, a calmly and surely built stage on which a mind blowing spectacle plays out for a short time. Take this Walk!

Watch it for the arresting finale!

3.5/5