Pairing for the fourth time, master director Steven Spielberg and ultimate everyman Tom Hanks take on a fascinating Cold War true story that offers more laughs than thrills. The script, from the Coen brothers, is expectedly funny and features two great characters at its center. One in Hanks' witty, no-nonsense James B. Donovan, esquire and the other in Rudolf Abel, a Soviet spy played by three-time Tony winner, Mark Rylance. Donavan is tasked by the CIA with defending the captured agent at trial, and later negotiating his exchange. In a nuanced, Oscar-worthy turn, Rylance makes Abel both sympathetic and likable, creating a moral quandary for Donovan, and in turn the audience.

Given the subject matter and marketing, the film appears to be a vintage Spielberg drama, but plays out in an more offbeat, less austere, less tension-filled way than anticipated. Period spy thriller Munich (2005) and fellow Hanks war film Saving Private Ryan (1998), this is not. Instead Hanks, whose character has a cold wink for most of the movie, riffs comedically in a series of closed-door conversations with foreign diplomats. The one real action sequence, a spy pilot's daring ejection from his shot-up plane, exemplifies the director's ability to continue offering unique images on screen. Aiding him in this task is cinematographer and frequent collaborator, Janusz Kaminski, who uses diffuse lighting, a muted palette and subtle camera movements to evoke the early 19060's from America across the Iron Curtain.

The film is sturdily made and amusing, especially in its fact-based premise, but the stakes never seem high throughout. Running 141 minutes, and feeling every bit of it, there's no sense that Donovan will fail in his prisoner swap. Ultimately, Bridge of Spies, literal title and all, registers somewhere in the middle of Spielberg's impressive filmography. The Coen brothers as writers strike again, with an offering that looks like a straight genre picture, only to subvert expectations in favor of quirky characters and dry humor. Despite any objections to tone, the film succeeds on its own earnest terms, and will surely be heard from again come Oscar time.

Final Grade: B | 85/100 | ★★★