After enjoying so many great films at the end of each year, we're meant to suffer and pay for it at the start of each New Year. Usually studios tend to empty their trash baskets in the months of January and February, which always end up being the worst time of the year to go to the movies. Thankfully one decent film managed to escape in good condition this year; Breach, the new thriller based on the true story of the greatest security breach in U.S. history.
Ryan Phillippe plays Eric O'Neill, a smart, young FBI rookie determined to make the rank of an official agent for the bureau. O'Neill is specifically chosen and re-assigned by his straight-as-an-arrow handler, Kate Burroughs (played by Laura Linney), to get up close and personal with his new boss, Robert Hanssen, played with a fierce, calculating subtlety by Academy Award winning actor Chris Cooper.
On the surface Hanssen seems like any other ordinary, dedicated agent, just serving his country, but upon a much closer examination, O'Neill learns that appearances can be deceiving. His loving family and being a devoted Catholic (always praying and attending mass) seems to be the perfect cover to bewilder any and all preconceived notions that O'Neill has. No wonder he was been able to get away with it for so long.
The FBI has reason to believe that Hanssen has been selling secrets to the Russians for years; they just don't have a solid enough case to put him away for good and they want to catch him in the act, red handed. O'Neill spies on his boss, trying to get any inside information on his daily activities to report back to Burroughs.
Breach could have been a tremendously boring drama considering it's mostly just people talking about spying and probing for nearly two hours. Thankfully director and co-writer Billy Ray, whose last film was 2003's Shattered Glass, has an air-tight script and sturdy performances to rely on to keep things gravitated and moving along at a brisk pace. It's a moral drama, pulsating with tension throughout, and with the performances, it's not so much what's said aloud, but more about what lurks behind the eyes.
Phillippe's performance is solid enough for the lead, but it's Cooper's unflinching performance as Robert Hanssen that's so magnetic that it steals the show; creating a character that we can easily dislike, yet as sly and repulsive as he is, we're still intrigued to understand how he turned out to be so rotten and why he decided to betray the country he loved so much.
Breach doesn't really offer any answers for Hanssen's crimes, but nevertheless we are fascinated to see one of our own stray from the path and get caught in the snare by a constant game of cat-and-mouse. The film isn't dumbed down or stylishly over-the-top like Tony Scott's Spy Game. This is a solid little intellectual thriller, that's focused on showing us the how, while dispensing with the why. Breach is as cold and hard as the facts itself, and because it doesn't insult your intelligence is why it is the first good film of the year, and definitely worth the price of admission.
Ryan Phillippe plays Eric O'Neill, a smart, young FBI rookie determined to make the rank of an official agent for the bureau. O'Neill is specifically chosen and re-assigned by his straight-as-an-arrow handler, Kate Burroughs (played by Laura Linney), to get up close and personal with his new boss, Robert Hanssen, played with a fierce, calculating subtlety by Academy Award winning actor Chris Cooper.
On the surface Hanssen seems like any other ordinary, dedicated agent, just serving his country, but upon a much closer examination, O'Neill learns that appearances can be deceiving. His loving family and being a devoted Catholic (always praying and attending mass) seems to be the perfect cover to bewilder any and all preconceived notions that O'Neill has. No wonder he was been able to get away with it for so long.
The FBI has reason to believe that Hanssen has been selling secrets to the Russians for years; they just don't have a solid enough case to put him away for good and they want to catch him in the act, red handed. O'Neill spies on his boss, trying to get any inside information on his daily activities to report back to Burroughs.
Breach could have been a tremendously boring drama considering it's mostly just people talking about spying and probing for nearly two hours. Thankfully director and co-writer Billy Ray, whose last film was 2003's Shattered Glass, has an air-tight script and sturdy performances to rely on to keep things gravitated and moving along at a brisk pace. It's a moral drama, pulsating with tension throughout, and with the performances, it's not so much what's said aloud, but more about what lurks behind the eyes.
Phillippe's performance is solid enough for the lead, but it's Cooper's unflinching performance as Robert Hanssen that's so magnetic that it steals the show; creating a character that we can easily dislike, yet as sly and repulsive as he is, we're still intrigued to understand how he turned out to be so rotten and why he decided to betray the country he loved so much.
Breach doesn't really offer any answers for Hanssen's crimes, but nevertheless we are fascinated to see one of our own stray from the path and get caught in the snare by a constant game of cat-and-mouse. The film isn't dumbed down or stylishly over-the-top like Tony Scott's Spy Game. This is a solid little intellectual thriller, that's focused on showing us the how, while dispensing with the why. Breach is as cold and hard as the facts itself, and because it doesn't insult your intelligence is why it is the first good film of the year, and definitely worth the price of admission.