Breach (Widescreen)

 

 

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Based on a true story. Wannabe-FBI-agent Eric O'Neill (Ryan Philippe) enters into a power game with his newly assigned boss, Robert Hanssen, an agent who, it seems, is selling secrets to the Soviet Union.
O'Neill will have to discover the truth by becoming Hanssen's personal assistant, and by gaining his trust. He will follow him, document every single thing he does, and spy his every moves. O'Neill will be intimidated and mesmerized by Hanssen who might be seen as his mentor.

Negative comment: The make-up on everyone (particularly Chris Cooper) at times was terribly awful and badly done. Caroline Dhavernas (O'Neill's German wife, Juliana) looked old with that make-up! And she just does not have the German accent, as her English is almost perfect - she is from Quebec.

Positive comments: Well-paced. Realistic and thought-provoking. Decent script.
The acting was not bad, certainly not the actors' best performances.
Well-directed by little-known movie director Billy Ray.

BE WARNED: If you expect a car-chase or gun-packed action movie, stay away from this.
If you like spy thrillers with a hint of psychology and history, this is a recommended film.

Robert Hanssen was an FBI agent who was arrested in 2001 and pled guilty to 15 counts of espionage with regards to having sold American secrets to Moscow for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds over a 15-year period. Hanssen's activities have been described as "possibly the worst intelligence disaster in US history," including leaking the names of doubles agents, the continuity of government plan in case of a Soviet nuclear attack, and American methods for intercepting Soviet transmissions. "Breach" is the story Eric O'Neill (Ryan Phillipe), a young FBI employee who had been doing surveillance work on counterterrosism was given a special assignment to work undercover as a clerk to Hanssen (Chris Cooper). O'Neill is told by his handler, Kate Burroughs (Laura Linney), that Hanssen is suspected of being a sexual deviant, but the film opens with a clip of then Attorney General John Ashcroft announcing Hanssen's arrest.

Hanssen has been recalled to FBI headquarters, supposedly to head up a new division specializing in Information Assurance. But Hanssen is suspicious of the move and therefore doubly suspicious of O'Neill. Time and time again Hanssen tells O'Neill "I need to know if I can trust you," and the answer of course is "no." The dynamic of this film is that O'Neill starts off behind the story until he sees through the cover story that Hanssen is a sexual deviant and is brought up to speed by Burroughs. Then he has to get ahead of Hanssen. According to the commentary track by director Billy Ray ("Shattered Glass") and the real Eric O'Neill, this is the biggest change from what really happened because O'Neill was told Hanssen was under suspicion but not that the FBI already had hard evidence of espionage. But the main part of the investigation being run by Burroughs is happening mostly in the background of this film, where the emphasis is on the cat and mouse game taking place between Hanssen and O'Neill. The FBI has 500 people on this case, but only one of them is stuck in the room with the guy all day.

Chris Cooper's dominating performance carries this movie. It is not that Phillipe's performance is bad, but neither he nor anybody else stands a chance being in a scene with Cooper in this movie (Linney comes the closest, but technically she is never actually IN a scene with Cooper: you will see what I mean when you watch the film). I know this movie came out in February and that performances early in the calendar year tend to be forgotten (prime case in point, Joan Allen in "The Upside of Anger"), but Cooper should at least earn a nomination for Best Actor for his work in this film. On one of the bonus features director Ray talks about he was looking for an actor who was somebody you would not want to think you were an idiot, which certainly defines Chris Cooper. This is a marvelously nuanced performance and when you feel yourself feeling sympathetic towards Hanssen you know exactly how great of a job Cooper is doing playing this guy. "Breach" is not really an action film and so it comes down to the performances and it is because of the superb work by Cooper (and Linney), as well as the excellent commentary track that pays equal attention to the performances and the true story that in the end I round up.

The movie backs off on the "why" behind Hanssen's actions, perhaps ultimately that is not what the film is about, even though a scene is shot for the end of the movie to provide broad hints. So there is plenty for you to debate the matter in your own mind as to why Hanssen did what he did. One of the bonus features on the DVD is a "Dateline" report on "The Mole" (aired between Hanssen's arrest and his conviction in 2001), that does a nice job of getting into some of the details of how Hanssen pulled this off for so long and stuff that happened way before the movie starts (kudos to Linney for her work as mistress of exposition in this film). Final Note: I do not think I have seen this before on a DVD but there are sub-titles for the commentary track. I usually like to have the movie sub-titles on while listening to the commentary and here you can actually do it the other way around if that strikes your fancy. Just pick the 4th subtitle track instead of the 1st.

The movie "Breach" is an example of Hollywood at its best. The movie serves as an important history lesson and features good acting. I would recommend it for college students and classroom discussion. [ASIN:B000OYAT3U Breach (Widescreen)

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4.0 out of 5 stars solid espionage movie (3.5/5)
i thought this was a well done movie.it moves along at a good clip.it's
never boring,and it was much more straight forward than i expected it
to be,making it easy to... Read more

Published on Feb 20 2008 by falcon

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