DIRECTOR Steven Spielberg reunites with actor Tom Hanks for an incredible true story of courage and daring that proves one man can make a difference.

Scripted by Matt Charman and the Coen brothers, Bridge Of Spies (12A) is an espionage thriller that pits a mild-mannered insurance lawyer against the bureaucratic might of the USSR and Germany during the Cold War.

Rudolf Abel (Rylance) is arrested in 1957 New York and labelled a Soviet spy.

Legal maven Thomas Watters Jr (Alan Alda) enlists one of his best lawyers, James B Donovan (Hanks), to mount a credible defence for the sake of appearances even though the odds are against a fair trial.

Donovan’s wife Mary (Amy Ryan) and three children, Carol (Eve Hewson), Peggy (Jillian Lebling) and Roger (Noah Schnapp), cannot fathom why the family man would represent a traitor to the American way of life.

Sure enough, Abel is convicted, but then a US pilot, Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell), is shot down over the Soviet Union.

Consequently, Donovan travels to Berlin to broker a covert deal to exchange Abel for Powers.

Against the advice of superiors, Donovan also opens negotiations with the Stasi for the safe return of an American economics student called Frederic Pryor (Will Rogers), who has been arrested.

Bridge Of Spies is a slow-burning tale of intrigue and bluff that takes its time establishing Donovan as the potential saviour of not one but three lives.

Hanks injects natural warmth and likeability to his character, a hate figure to fellow Americans, who viewed everything in black and white