Bridge of Spies - 4 smiles

It's important to notice, in Steven Spielberg's "Bridge of Spies," the parallels between the 1950s and today. Their U-2s are our drones; our allies still torture enemies for intelligence; demagogues at home still scream that we must be afraid and that our way of life is doomed. In 1957, James Donovan (Tom Hanks) asked to defend Russian spy Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) on three counts of thermonuclear espionage. Although everyone, including the trial judge, wants Abel to receive the death penalty, Donovan, a former insurance litigator, thinks Abel is more valuable alive. Five years later, in 1962, as East Germany is erecting the Berlin Wall, Donovan has a chance to prove it by attempting to trade Abel to the Russians in exchange for American pilot Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell), captured on a mission to photograph Soviet territory in a high-flying U-2 surveillance plane.

It's clear that Abel is guilty from the first scene, in which he pries open a hollow nickel to extract a code. We never doubt where anyone stands. And while everyone shouts for Abel's execution, we want our guy back unharmed. Standing on the Glienicke Bridge (where the prisoner exchange is supposed to take place), Donovan is alarmed to spot German snipers on the other end. His CIA handler tells him our side has them, too. The East and West could be mirror images: two gun nests, two prisoners, two sides that stoke fear in their people by calling the other the enemy. Hence, a key question here is, Are the good guys that much better than the bad? Most spy thrillers send in James Bond (see "Spectre") to save the day. "Bridge of Spies" sidelines the action heroes to celebrate the valor of ordinary men and Hanks gives us a Donovan who's sense of integrity pushes him to complete a difficult mission. With Spielberg at the helm, you know you're going to enjoy the journey.

(Note: In 1945, James Donovan became assistant to Justice Robert H. Jackson at the Nuremberg trials in Germany.)