BEFORE: I took a little break on Sunday night, just to get the 2nd half of my Christmas cards signed and packaged with a little mix CD of holiday music. Then tonight (Monday) was my annual Festivus ritual, which is not anything like the one depicted on "Seinfeld", with the Festivus pole, the Airing of the Grievances and then the Feats of Strength. No, my Festivus is much more free-form, it's just designed to get me into the holiday spirit about a week or so before Christmas.
I usually hit one of the NYC holiday markets, either at Union Square or Grand Central, or go on a walk between the two, and try to finish my holiday shopping, if need be. This could involve buying books at the Barnes & Noble, or not, and it may involve a friend and some food and drink, or not. This time I met my friend Victoria at the Union Square market, I had a Polish sausage and a Belgian waffle, then we shopped for books.
Tom Hanks carries over from "The 'Burbs", and it doesn't really matter what order I watch these last three films of the year in, but there's sort of a tenuous story connection with the last film, where those suburbanites thought their neighbors MIGHT be Russian spies, and this film is about a genuine Russian spy. Russia's been weaving through the narratives of my films this year, I'll break down the extent of my blog's collusion with the Russians next week in the annual wrap-up post.
THE PLOT: During the Cold War, an American lawyer is recruited to defend an arrested Soviet spy in court, and then help the CIA facilitate an exchange of the spy for the Soviet captured American U2 spy plane pilot, Francis Gary Powers.
AFTER: Thanks to Hollywood movies, most of us think we know what being a spy is all about - cool gadgets, fast cars, even faster women, and so on. But in the real world, espionage is probably a lot more boring, as evidenced in this film based on real events. The KGB spy captured here by U.S. agents is an older, rather unassuming man, who paints in the park every day while he makes his "drops". James Donovan is an insurance claims lawyer chosen to represent him in court, so that the public perceives that the spy has a "fair" trial, which makes Donovan hated in the news media at the time (1960).
The surprising plot twists here take the form of legal arguments, like "How can a man be accused of treason, if he never swore allegiance to the U.S. in the first place?" In one sense, this spy, Rudolf Abel, was just doing his job, and if you follow the logic, then U.S. spies could be held for treason against the countries that they're spying on, and would we really want that? Another legal question arises when Donovan tries to get the protections of the Constitution to cover Abel (you know, like a fair and speedy trial, no unjust punishments...) but the judge believes that since he's been in the country illegal, and, you know, SPYING on us, he's not necessarily entitled to those protections. Which kind of sounds like he was assumed to be guilty, and not innocent until proven guilty.
But hey, congratulations on finding a way to make spy movies boring - just quote a bunch of legal arguments and watch the eyes of the audience glaze over as they lose their attention. I'm fairly sure I fell asleep about halfway through this one, I had to force myself awake at about 4 am to watch the last hour of the film, just so I could go back to bed at 5 am and get a few hours of solid shut-eye. That's just not going to help me perform at work the next day, guys.
Donovan convinces the judge to not sentence Abel to death, because as a foreign agent he might have some trade value with the Soviets. And then, as if on cue, Francis Gary Powers gets shot down over Russian airspace while flying a U-2 spy plane taking photos, and suddenly trading one of ours for one of theirs seems like a fine idea. So Donovan is sent off to recently-separated Germany to negotiate the deal, only there's a hitch: another U.S. citizen, a young economics student, has gotten into trouble with the East Germans, so Donovan has to try to arrange a two-for-one deal, getting one prisoner back from the Russians and another back from the East Germans.
The exchange plays out on the Glienicke Bridge, hence the title, and I wish I could say that this climax of the film is more exciting than what has led up to it, but really, it's just a prisoner exchange, and it's hard to imbue that with a lot of dramatic tension. They try their best with the last-minute phone call thing, but it's a vain effort. They also left themselves open for a sequel, because Donovan went on to play a role in releasing prisoners after the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.
NITPICK POINT: I recognized the subway cars in the opening scene as being just a bit too recent for a film set in 1957 - they look just like some of the older cars that are still in service. Sure, some NYC subway cars haven't changed since the 1970's or so, but these looked all shiny with the ribbed siding, and those cars didn't come into service until 1964 (as mentioned on the IMDB "goofs" page). They should have used the cars from the 6 Line with the flat sides, I don't think that design has been updated since the 1940's.
Also starring Mark Rylance (last heard in "The BFG") Amy Ryan (last seen in "Escape Plan"), Sebastian Koch (last seen in "The Danish Girl"), Alan Alda (last seen in "Sweet Liberty"), Austin Stowell (last seen in "Whiplash"), Scott Shepherd (last seen in "Jason Bourne"), Billy Magnussen (last seen in "The Big Short"), Eve Hewson (last seen in "Enough Said"), Jillian Lebling, Noah Schnapps (last heard in "The Peanuts Movie"), Jesse Plemons (last seen in "Black Mass"), Michael Gaston (last seen in "Body of Lies"), Peter McRobbie (last seen in "The Hoax"), Domenick Lombardozzio, Will Rogers, Dakin Matthews (last seen in "Sunset"), Stephen Kunken (also last seen in "Jason Bourne"), Joshua Harto, Mark Zak, Edward James Hyland (last seen in "Café Society"), Mikhail Gorevoy (last seen in "Die Another Day"), Burghart Klaußner.
RATING: 5 out of 10 checkpoint guards
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