I saw this movie for the first time last weekend even though it was produced in 2015. Tom Hanks stars in it as the appointed defense lawyer, Jim Donovan, for an accused communist spy. The spy, Rudolf Abel, was played magnificently by Mark Rylance.
The movie was one of the best that I have seen in a long time. Because of the many interesting and well portrayed scenes in the movie, I watched it several times last weekend to savor the flavor. With so much mass production of movies now days, it is refreshing to see a really high quality movie that had so much to say.
Donovan is pushed into the unfortunate position of defending Abel by his firm’s other partners and feels compelled to honor the appropriate legal execution of his duties. But, as he tries to defend his client, he is prevented from performing his duty of fair representation by the judge and he struggles with his partners’, his family’s and the public’s perceptions of how he should handle the case.
The link in this post is a short scene of Donovan’s conversation with Abel during a lawyer/client meeting in prison. It is one of many excellent scenes in the movie. This scene captures the trials and tribulations of Donovan as a man and a lawyer while it speaks to the tenacity of Donovan as a person.
Check out the scene and the movie. It says a great deal about the integrity and grit of a unique individual.
