Movies have been made about true events for years. Some of them have turned out to be very good while others were very bad and have made me wonder why anyone even bothered to make the movies to begin with. I think that Breach is one of the better movies that has been based on real events.

In February of 2001, FBI agent Robert Hanssen was arrested after years of acting as a double agent to sell secrets to the Russians. Over the years he’d given them some very highly classified information that threatened the security of the United States and lead to death for the people he exposed.

Two months earlier, a young member of the FBI, Eric ÒNeil, was assigned to watch Robert by posing as his assistant. The FBI was trying to build a case against Robert and put in him charge of a new division dealing with computers. Eric wasn’t told the full story of what Robert was suspected of when he first started the assignment. It was only later that he was finally told that he was after evidence that would prove Robert had been the mole the FBI had been after for years. The assignment was hard on Eric since he had to keep the true nature of it from his wife and he’s started to admire Robert.

Breach was based on the true story of FBI agent Robert Hanssen, a man considered to be the worst spy in the history of this country. When I started watching the movie, I really wasn’t sure who Robert was. By the time it was over, the movie had jarred my memory enough that I can sort of remembering hearing about an FBI agent being arrested in 2001. I did do some research on him after watching the movie and found that the movie was very accurate in how Robert was depicted. The movie mentioned several things he had done over the years, but it was mostly focused in on the two month period before his arrest. One or two other people arrested for being double agents against the United States were also mentioned once or twice during the course of the movie.

Breach actually began by showing a little bit of a press conference from February 2001 concerning Hanssen’s arrest before jumping back two months to introduce Eric. The way the movie started off did give away what was going to happen to Robert but that didn’t bother me. Anyone that remembers any of the news stories from 2001 would already know that as well. Even knowing that Hanssen had been arrested didn’t make watching the movie pointless since I didn’t know exactly what led up to the arrest. I still felt that the movie was very interesting and worth watching. There were even a few suspenseful moments when I wasn’t sure how a certain situation was going to work out. After the movie ended, some text on the screen told exactly what happened to Hanssen after his arrest as well as what happened to Eric.

Hanssen was a very religious man and that kept coming out throughout Breach. He went to mass every day, had religious items in his office, and kept trying to get Eric to be more religious. It did seem like Hanssen was troubled by the fact that Eric’s wife wasn’t that religious. Hanssen was shown praying and going to church, sometimes along with his wife Bonnie, several times throughout the movie. He was even trying to get Eric and his wife to join Opus Dei, the branch of the Catholic Church that he and Bonnie belonged to. The name Opus Dei was only actually used once or twice during the movie and there really wasn’t any explanation about that particular branch of the church. It played a much larger part in the book The Da Vinci Code although I think some things connected to the church were left out of the movie version. Some viewers may be bothered by the way religion was used in this movie. In addition to the religious elements, there were also some sexual aspects to the movie as well. Hanssen had some different sexual interests that included taping himself having sex with his wife and then sending the tapes to one of his friends. One character saw a little bit of one of the tapes without much of anything actually being shown. There really weren’t any nudity or graphic sex scenes in the movie, but there were a few conversations that did bring up some sexual topics.

Hanssen had been in the FBI for almost twenty-five years and was only a few months away from retirement during the time period covered by the movie. He was extremely religious and tended to lecture others about doing what was right while he was betraying the country. The man had a very skewed sense of values. Chris Cooper was wonderful in the part and did manage to create some sympathy for Hanssen even though he really was not a nice person. I did keep noticing that Cooper’s lips were very red, which was a bit distracting in some scenes. That was just a minor thing, but it was something I noticed.

Eric was just starting with the FBI and working toward becoming an agent when he was chosen to work on the project to find evidence against Hanssen. Eric was struggling to do his job without Hanssen catching on to what was really happening. He was also having to keep the truth of his assignment, once he actually knew what it was, from his wife. Ryan Phillippe handled the part really well. Kate was the agent that was in contact with Eric for his assignment. She was working very hard to capture Hanssen. Laura Linney was really good in the part even though it wasn’t as large as some of her other parts. A few other agents as well as Bonnie and Juliana were also shown without any of them being that developed. The movie was really focused in on Hanssen and Eric. The real Eric O’Neil served as a consultant for the movie.

Main Cast

Gary Cole - Rich Graces
Christ Cooper - Robert Hanssen
Caroline Dhavernas - Juliana O’Neil
Dennis Haysbert - Dean Plesac
Laura Linney - Kate Burroughs
Ryan Phillippe - Eric O’Neil
Kathleen Quinlan - Bonnie Hanssen

Billy Ray - Director


Breach was released to theaters on February 16, 2007. I do remember seeing trailers before that and being interested in the movie. I wasn’t able to see it while it was in theaters and figured I would rent it after it was out on DVD later in the year. Instead, I recently watched it after it started to air on HBO. I really enjoyed the movie and am glad that I was finally able to see it. Since I haven’t seen the movie on DVD, I don’t know what sort of special features are on it, though I did read about there being a Dateline special about Hanssen included which I would like to see someday.

I really enjoyed Breach and feel it is one of the better movies made in 2007. It was a very well done character driven movie that didn’t depend on special effects or a lot of nonstop mindless action scenes to make a good movie. Chris Cooper gave an amazing performance that deserves to be seen.

Laura Linney Movie Reviews
Absolute Power ~ The Exorcism of Emily Rose ~ Man of the Year ~ Mystic River ~

Recommended: Yes