One of the best elements of this lean, tense and coolly believable story about the internal hunt for FBI turncoat Robert Hanssen is how its visual style and dearth of formulaic structural ingredients run counter to almost any other spy movie.
Breach (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:170
Fresh:142
Rotten:28
Average Rating:7/10
Consensus: Powered by Chris Cooper's masterful performance, Breach is a tense and engaging portrayal of the FBI's infamous turncoat.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for violence, sexual content and language.
Runtime: 3 hrs 42 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Feb 16, 2007 Wide
Box Office: $32,958,840
Synopsis: Chris Cooper (ADAPTATION) gives a remarkable performance as complicated and bitter FBI agent Robert Hanssen in BREACH. Hanssen is a computer specialist who, after 25 years of service, is put under... Chris Cooper (ADAPTATION) gives a remarkable performance as complicated and bitter FBI agent Robert Hanssen in BREACH. Hanssen is a computer specialist who, after 25 years of service, is put under surveillance as a suspected sex offender. Eric O'Neill (Ryan Phillippe, CRASH) is the ambitious young upstart they put on the job, assigning him to pose as Hanssen's new clerk in order to win his trust and keep an eye on his every move. Eric is dismayed to be put on such low-priority detail, accustomed as he is to investigating high-profile terrorism suspects. His reluctance is multiplied as he gets to know the subject of his inquiry; Hanssen is at first harsh towards his young secretary, but as he opens up, Eric gets to know and respect him as a family man of strong Catholic faith. Soon, however, Hanssen is infiltrating Eric's personal life and causing problems between him and his wife, Juliana (Caroline Dhavernas, HOLLYWOODLAND), and just when Eric is about to give up the case, he discovers that it is much bigger than he ever imagined. Eric finds himself in the middle of an investigation into the biggest security breach in U.S. history, forcing him to resort to dramatic and ingenious tactics in order to bring down the suspect. Director Billy Ray's first directorial effort was the dramatization of the Stephen Glass scandal at the D.C. magazine The New Republic in SHATTERED GLASS, and here he once again turns his eye--with great success--to a true story with a complex villain. Cooper's excellent characterization invites pity and horror in equal measure; his performance is well supported in this character-driven thriller by Laura Linney (KINSEY) as the hard-nosed agent leading the investigation, and Phillippe as the resourceful and introspective O'Neill. [More]
Starring: Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillippe, Kathleen Quinlan, Laura Linney
Starring: Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillippe, Kathleen Quinlan, Laura Linney, Gary Cole, Dennis Haysbert, Caroline Dhavernas, Bruce Davison
Director: Billy Ray
Director: Billy Ray
Producer: Scott Kroopf
Composer: Mychael Danna
Studio: Universal Pictures
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Reviews for Breach
Breach suffers from lavishing so much attention on a relatively minor figure.
Despite limits, the story has traction and grip. As Hanssen plays out his fate, truly worshipping nothing but his own importance, we enjoy the pressures so bracingly incarnated by Chris Cooper.
Just when you're thinking every new American film belongs in the Bomb Squad, along comes Breach to win one for our side.
Breach gets considerable power from the brilliant Cooper, who generates an incredibly complex and multi-layered portrayal of Hanssen. It's the first great performance of 2007.
A solid feat of filmmaking across the board, Breach brings a long-awaited end to the drought of good movies at the multiplex.
A riveting true-life thriller about the young FBI specialist who got the goods on the veteran agent selling secrets to Moscow.
The movie gives us counter-espionage without the Bourne or Bond embellishments, and superb acting from Cooper, Phillippe and Linney.
Smart, plausible, well-crafted and filled with moments of real drama.
Cooper's performance is fine. The script, however, is filled with dead-end tangents and unanswered questions.
Though it's being dumped in the wastelands in February, Breach is better than many of the pack of so-called prestige movies that were released at the end of last year.
A sharp cat-and-mouse game between Hanssen and Eric O'Neill (Ryan Phillippe), the agent/trainee assigned to spy on him.
Breach is never less than interesting, engaging and intelligently told.
The enigma of Hanssen keeps the film as fresh and crisp as an FBI agent's white dress shirt.
It feels like a taut spy thriller, the intellectual answer to The Bourne Identity.
This tale of betrayal and loyalty, of spiritual awakening and the subtle encroachment of evil, and of bureaucratic foul ups is laid out in a sober and detailed structure, though it lacks the tense-filled moments needed for a thrilling spy drama.
Filled with tension, deception and bravura acting, Breach is a crackling tale of real-life espionage that doubles as a compelling psychological drama.
A rare spy thriller, one that is more about true psychological suspense than espionage games.
Phillippe and Cooper remind us that real espionage isn’t about chases and gunplay but about the duplicity of the human personality.
Breach, not unlike The Good Shepherd, is a flat film. All the action plays out in the same grey fashion, with few emotional ups or downs, little tension and no real surprises.
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