Bridge of Spies 2015

Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times: When the titles of the five-plus films nominated for best picture are announced, it will be a surprise if Bridge of Spies doesn't make the cut. Read more

Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press: Bridge of Spies, which waxes poetic -- and occasionally cynically -- on patriotism, honor, and duty, echoes in your mind long after the credits roll and begs for a second viewing. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Spielberg's best since 'Saving Private Ryan' stars a flawless Tom Hanks in an engrossing old-school thriller. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: It's a riveting film and I understood every word. Read more

Joe Neumaier, TIME Magazine: In his fourth pairing with Hanks, Spielberg again examines the furtive face of justice and issues another masterful ruling. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: A riveting, feel-good time for the whole family ... Read more

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club: An ode to holding fast to moral principles, geopolitics be damned, becomes a hurrah for old-fashioned big-screen storytelling. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: A film that is so old-fashioned and comforting that, for much of the time, watching it feels like cuddling up under a soft good-movie blanket. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: "Bridge of Spies" is a moral drama driven by an insurance lawyer. That it works at all is a miracle - or would be, if anyone other than St. Steven were involved. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Tom Hanks lends his considerable Honest John appeal to this fascinating cold war drama. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Like everything about Spielberg's "Bridge of Spies," Hanks' performance makes relaxed professionalism and genial decency look easy. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Bridge of Spies is solid and uplifting, but it doesn't extend Spielberg's range. Read more

Preston Jones, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: For all Spielberg, his star-packed cast, led by Tom Hanks, and his on-screen and off-screen team (Joel and Ethan Coen co-wrote the screenplay) bring to the table, Bridge of Spies is remarkable only for how stuffy and surprisingly inert the film becomes. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: A crackling Cold War espionage thriller that thrums with suspense and fleet precision. Read more

Nancy Churnin, Dallas Morning News: Authentic re-creations of the period, including duck-and-cover clips about a nuclear holocaust that frightened young students, serve as a reminder of a time, not unlike our own, when the threat of terror kept a steady and disturbing beat. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: An absorbing true-life espionage tale very smoothly handled by old pros who know what they're doing. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: "Bridge of Spies" is a consummate professional's tribute to a gifted amateur, a smooth entertainment with a strong but subtle political subtext that's both potent and unexpected. Read more

Amy Nicholson, L.A. Weekly: Bridge of Spies connects Cold War paranoia to today's terror. That's a bridge worth building. Read more

Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News: A mature drama that demands rapt attention and prefers studied execution over frenetic pacing. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Bridge of Spies has been described as a minor work from a major filmmaker, but the film is too personal to dismiss as a curiosity, and its overall theme blends right in with many of Spielberg's previous pictures. Read more

Gwyneth Kelly, The New Republic: The details of the story in Bridge of Spies are specific to their time, but the broader conflicts from which they stem remain pertinent. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Steven Spielberg's period drama works as glossy entertainment but also draws subtle parallels to the present. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: When a film is as enjoyable as this one, its timing so sweet, and its atmosphere conjured with such skill, do you really wish to register a complaint? Would it help? Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Steven Spielberg's latest is a solid, quietly made drama carefully wrapped around a civics lesson. Read more

Mark Jenkins, NPR: There are no extraneous elements in this carefully structured docudrama, which juxtaposes East and West with parallel scenes and emulates vintage Hollywood fare as painstakingly as it reconstructs 1957 Brooklyn and 1962 Berlin. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR: Apart from Hanks, and an understated, scene-stealing turn by Mark Rylance as the Soviet spy Abel, Bridge of Spies mostly settles for being solidly told and atmospheric. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: "Bridge of Spies" is, like most of Mr. Spielberg's films, a consummate entertainment that sweeps you up with pure cinema. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Using a screenplay polished and honed by the Coen Brothers, Spielberg dips into John le Carre territory ... Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: In terms of the director's oeuvre, this will likely be remembered as one of his "minor" productions. (Think Always, The Terminal, and War Horse.) Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Who doesn't like to cozy up to an old-school spy thriller that knows how to build tension and tighten it? Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: I liked the movie a lot - it's one of Spielberg's most measured and most adult films in years, with production values every bit as good as you'd expect. Read more

Soren Anderson, Seattle Times: The skill with which Hanks navigates the intricacies of the plot amount to some of the best work of his career. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Steven Spielberg is so smooth, so good at what he does, that his best movies have a way of seeming inevitable, when they're the furthest thing from it. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: This is a film that, though its story (inspired by true events) begins in 1957 and spans a period of about five years, uses that era to hold a mirror to our own. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: It's a salute to nostalgic, idealistic patriotism that Norman Rockwell, Frank Capra and Jimmy Stewart would applaud. With Franz Kafka. Read more

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Despite its genre constraints, "Bridge of Spies" is among Spielberg's finest achievements - and a reminder that the past is much more than just a repository for nostalgia. Read more

David Sims, The Atlantic: Spielberg and Charman frame Donovan as a thin bulwark against the American government's attempts to work around its own supposed ideals at the height of the Cold War. Read more

Kate Taylor, Globe and Mail: Rylance's performance is particularly interesting as he infuses Abel's dry understatements on his predicament with just the right dose of quiet irony. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Hanks and Rylance deliver golden performances as natural combatants who find common cause in seeking honest justice, even if only they realize it. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: If you can overlook the three or four endings, each more overdone than the last, there's a lot to like here. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Hanks has never seemed more like a modern Jimmy Stewart, drink in hand, just looking to get home to his bed, as the script leans into its cavalcade of slightly bizarre negotiations with Eastern European goons. Read more

Bruce Kirkland, Toronto Sun: This intriguing story of a high-level swap of spies is virtually unknown today -- but the film is inspirational enough that viewers might do their own out-of-theatre research and learn a lot more. Read more

Brian Truitt, USA Today: It's the very definition of meat and potatoes: While not phenomenal, especially compared to the rest of the Spielberg oeuvre, Spies still hits the spot. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Sober but stirring ... Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Spielberg can't help but make the kind of inspiring, classically constructed drama that we keep being told Hollywood doesn't produce anymore. Thank goodness he still does. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: "Bridge of Spies" isn't conventionally exciting, and isn't intended to be. Instead, it's satisfying-thoroughly and pleasurably so. Read more