Bridge of Spies
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | Release Date: October 16, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
81
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 48 Critic Reviews
Positive:
47
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Total FilmPhillip KempNov 23, 2015
Political intrigue abounds as Spielberg grippingly recreates a famous real-life spy-swap case of the Cold War, with both Hanks and Rylance on top form. Read full review
100
CineVueMatthew AndersonOct 28, 2015
Even at a hefty 140 minutes, Bridge of Spies maintains a solid pace. Spielberg's mise-en-scène and the streamlined editing of long-time collaborator Michael Kahn are tremendous. Read full review
100
TimeJoe NeumaierOct 19, 2015
This covertly brawny film, with a script by Matt Charman and Joel and Ethan Coen, has plot points that click like pegs under Spielberg’s tight direction. In his fourth pairing with Hanks, Spielberg again examines the furtive face of justice and issues another masterful ruling. Read full review
100
New York PostLou LumenickOct 15, 2015
Bridge of Spies, Steven Spielberg’s best film since “Saving Private Ryan,” stars a flawless Tom Hanks in the smart, old-school thriller as James Donovan. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 15, 2015
Bridge of Spies tells us that the Constitution is not some quaint national luxury but the road map out of the darkness. Read full review
100
The New York TimesManohla DargisOct 15, 2015
Like some of Mr. Spielberg’s other recent movies, notably “Lincoln” and “Munich,” this one is a meticulously detailed period piece that revisits the anxieties of the past while also speaking to those of the present. Yet it also feels lighter than those films, less weighted down by accreted history or maybe by a sense of duty to its significance. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperOct 14, 2015
Spielberg has taken an important but largely forgotten and hardly action-packed slice of the Cold War and turned it into a gripping character study and thriller that feels a bit like a John Le Carre adaptation if Frank Capra were at the controls. Read full review
100
The GuardianPeter BradshawOct 5, 2015
Bridge of Spies has a brassy and justified confidence in its own narrative flair. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyOct 14, 2015
Bridge Of Spies turns a secret prisoner exchange between the CIA and the KGB into a tense and often disarmingly funny cat-and-mouse game. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranOct 15, 2015
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 full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaOct 15, 2015
Using a screenplay polished and honed by the Coen Brothers, Spielberg dips into John le Carré territory (you can't help but think of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold when Donovan looks onto the newly erected Berlin Wall, in the searchlights, in the snow). Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonOct 15, 2015
As the deeply principled Donovan, Hanks deftly balances earnestness and humor. And Rylance’s spirited performance is almost certain to yield an Oscar nomination. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 15, 2015
The film is an anomaly — a confident, slightly square, highly satisfying example of old-school Hollywood craftsmanship, starring a major movie star brandishing a briefcase, and a handkerchief, rather than a pistol. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoOct 14, 2015
A daring, studied, mannered true story that is at once remarkably genuine and deeply cinematic at the same time. It’s one of the best films of the year. Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 13, 2015
Long, patient and chilling, it vividly captures a time in America and the feel of divided Berlin in the muted blues and greys that color our memories of that “duck and cover” age. Read full review
83
HitfixDrew McWeenyOct 16, 2015
I was pleased to see that "Spies" is not a thriller so much as an ode to both American diplomacy and the tradition of moral movie fathers along the lines of Atticus Finch. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerOct 16, 2015
Solid and uplifting, but it doesn’t extend Spielberg’s range. Perhaps one day he will make a movie about a historical character whose complexities are not quite so untainted. Read full review
83
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallOct 15, 2015
Bridge of Spies is solid work but feels like Spielberg's best intentions as a filmmaker and world conscience on cruise control. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianJeff BakerOct 15, 2015
A movie that underplays its many strengths. You don't realize how good it is until it's over. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyOct 7, 2015
Bridge of Spies is like Capra with a dash of le Carré. Read full review
80
EmpireIan NathanNov 23, 2015
So godlike is Spielberg’s status that we often take his talents for granted. The strange, riveting mix of Bridge Of Spies is another sterling reminder that we shouldn’t. Read full review
80
SlateDana StevensOct 23, 2015
Spielberg has an effortless-seeming knack for creating compositions that are not just lovely to look at but integral to the idea or emotion he’s trying to express. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony LaneOct 19, 2015
You might suggest that Bridge of Spies plays everything a touch safe, and that its encomium to American decency need not be quite so persistent. But 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 full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzOct 15, 2015
Hanks could do this kind of role in his sleep; luckily he doesn’t. Like Spielberg, we probably take him and his gifts for granted. Between the two of them, they make Bridge of Spies a movie that works as a period piece and a timely commentary on how we live now. If that sounds like faint praise, it shouldn’t. Because it’s not. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirOct 15, 2015
Bridge of Spies is itself a form of historical whitewashing, albeit one less noxious and harmful than the customary American variety. I liked the movie a lot – it’s one of Spielberg’s most measured and most adult films in years. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinOct 14, 2015
This is a handsome and mature entertainment, rich with novelistic intrigue, that asks for very little in exchange for its rewards. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfOct 4, 2015
Gifts of civility small and large mark Steven Spielberg's latest film, a deeply satisfying Cold War spy thriller that feels more subdued than usual for the director—even more so than 2012's philosophical Lincoln—but one that shapes up expertly into a John Le Carré–style nail-biter. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyOct 4, 2015
A feel-good Cold War melodrama, Bridge of Spies is an absorbing true-life espionage tale very smoothly handled by old pros who know what they're doing. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeOct 4, 2015
While the helmer’s myth-making approach makes for great Capra-esque entertainment, younger auds may find it terribly old-fashioned — and they’d be right to think so, although Spielberg would be the first to admit it was his intention to play things classical. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanOct 29, 2015
Hanks gives one of his least showy and most credible performances. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorOct 16, 2015
The ever-reliable Hanks sympathetically personifies all in America that is worth fighting for, while his British colleague’s surprisingly comic version of Rudolf Abel portrays the Russian spy as a man quietly steadfast in his loyalty to a different cause. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 15, 2015
With names like Spielberg, Hanks, and the Coen Brothers, it's hard not to be excited about a project like Bridge of Spies. Yet, although the workmanlike production is solidly engaging, it falls short of the loftiest expectations. It's worth seeing but not one of the best films of 2015. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrOct 15, 2015
Most bewildering of all, 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 full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversOct 15, 2015
Bridge of Spies may be a snooze to the ADD crowd allergic to historical drama, but it's dished out by experts. Read full review
75
USA TodayBrian TruittOct 15, 2015
While not phenomenal, especially compared to the rest of the Spielberg oeuvre, Spies still hits the spot. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezOct 15, 2015
The movie kicks off with a wonderful setpiece that shows off Spielberg’s ability to tell a story primarily through visuals — is there any other filmmaker working today better at this? Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayOct 15, 2015
Bridge of Spies expands from being a smart, engrossing procedural to a carefully observed character study of Donovan, a particularly intriguing, heretofore overlooked American figure. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedOct 13, 2015
It’s a riveting film and I understood every word. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnOct 4, 2015
While the rousing tale of espionage has plenty of appealingly old-fashioned qualities, there's no doubting Spielberg's ability to devise visually arresting moments that speak to the movie's themes far better than its story. Read full review
75
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezOct 4, 2015
Bridge Of Spies is one-third courtroom drama and two-thirds Cold War thriller, and while an engaging watch thanks to fine actors and terrific filmmaking, it’s not without its issues. Read full review
72
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeOct 4, 2015
If you can overlook the three or four endings of Bridge of Spies, each more overdone than the last, there’s a lot to like here. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternOct 15, 2015
Bridge of Spies isn’t conventionally exciting, and isn’t intended to be. Instead, it’s satisfying — thoroughly and pleasurably so. Read full review
70
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonOct 13, 2015
What Spielberg seems to want most from this respectable lark is for audiences to notice the parallels between the 1950s and today. Read full review
70
Screen DailyGraham FullerOct 5, 2015
Unusually for a Spielberg movie, Bridge of Spies is tonally uncertain. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinOct 4, 2015
It’s Rylance who keeps Bridge of Spies standing. He gives a teeny, witty, fabulously non-emotive performance, every line musical and slightly ironic — the irony being his forthright refusal to deceive in a world founded on lies. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisOct 14, 2015
For the most part, Spielberg appears content to allow the story (admittedly, a tad bit long) to do the talking, though he goes badly off-track in the sappy ending reminiscent of a Fifties sitcom’s notions of hierarchy within the American family. Given the Spielberg film canon, it was inevitable. The guy just can’t help himself. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChristopher GrayOct 4, 2015
The film has a streamlined efficiency, but it feels like the work of a master who wants to please rather than probe. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottOct 14, 2015
Bridge of Spies, with its stop-and-go momentum, is also more merely interesting than it is full-on riveting. It's still quite good stuff, but despite its impressive pedigree... it doesn't feel as if it's quite the sum of all of its parts. Read full review
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