Bridge of Spies (Oscar Nominated)

I watched Bridge of Spies for my Oscar nominated film.  During May-term last year in Budapest, a movie was being filmed one day in the town square that was coming out the next year starring Tom Hanks.  I never knew what it was called but as soon as I watched the trailer on Movies On Demand and saw that it was filmed in "Germany" with Tom Hanks, I had to watch it because I was basically there.  This film is heavily based on the differences between perception and reality.  The first establishing shot depicts a man from behind looking in the mirror as he finishes a self portrait.  We do not really see him at first, just his reflections in the mirror and in the painting.  The director captures the journey of a man (Tom Hanks) who winds up in a situation bigger than himself.  As the hero he has no choice but to rise to the occasion to carry out an exchange of spies with the USSR.  Jim Donovan (Tom Hanks) is merely a defense attorney who chooses to represent Rudolph Abel (Mark Rylance), who is captured for committing espionage for the USSR, despite the fact that it makes him the most hated man in America.  He is just trying to do his job.  Mark Rylance's Oscar nomination for best supporting actor is very well deserved.  His character is so gentle and smart, it is almost hard to describe in words.  At the end of the film when the two countries meet on the bridge to exchange their captured men, Rudolph Abel chooses to wait for the Americans to receive another captured man at Checkpoint Charlie before he secures his own freedom.  He chooses to wait in order to thank Donovan for helping him and for representing "The Standing Man." I thought this film was very moving in the acting as well as the story itself.  I give it an 8.5/10.