Breach is a dark, thinking-person's spy movie in the old-time stone-cold tradition of 1965's The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, based on the novel of that time by John le Carre'. Breach, based on a true story, stars veteran actor Chris Cooper as the venerable FBI spy Robert Hanssen, and Eric O'Neill, played by Ryan Phillipe, as his young assistant and protege'. In supporting roles are Laura Linney, as Kate Burroughs, an FBI supervisor, and Caroline Dhavernas as Juliana O'Neill, Ryan's wife.

This film was not a big hit at the box office, possibly for two or three reasons. First, it necessarily is a bit cerebral and complex, due to the real-life subject matter involving many things technological, ethical, and even theological. Second, it doesn't have special effects, car chases, gun battles, nor torrid love scenes. Maybe third, it is a dark and brooding film about a cat-and-mouse game essentally between two men who are trying, in their own way, to understand the "why" of what they are doing. Watching it was like watching a good chess game played by a master and a skilled, rising young challenger; a treat if you like to see intricate strategies played out, but probably boring to those who want a pedal-to-the-metal thrill ride of a movie crafted purely for visceral entertainment joys.

The story involves Robert Hanssen, an FBI agent suspected of selling national secrets to the Soviet Union, such as the location of the hiding places of the United States president and other national figures in the event of a nuclear war or other national calamities. Among other crimes of which Hanssen is suspected is the compromise of at least 50 covert operatives and the execution of at least two double-agent Soviet operatives. Even so, Hanssen, if he indeed is the "mole" in the FBI, has cannily built a protective wall around himself so that the only way he may be caught is while he is in the act of transferring secret information to Soviet agents hiding in the U.S.

Hanssen is only two months away from government retirement, and the FBI is doubtful that they will be able to ensnare him. A young man training in the bureau, Eric O'Neill, aspiring to become an FBI agent, is tasked to be Hanssen's new assistant and to surveil his boss for irregular behavior which may be criminal, or at least embarassing to the bureau. O'Neill is not given the full story on Hanssen's possible perfidy, and he comes to admire his boss, until he forces an insider superior (Burroughs) to tell him if she has been hiding something from him. 

It is then that he is informed that the FBI hierarchy believes Hanssen is a traitor to his country. O'Neill's personal life becomes involved as he slowly moves in on Hanssen to make him reveal his true persona: whether he is simply a highly intelligent FBI agent thumbing his nose at his superiors because, while he has been overlooked in the promotion department, he is in fact actually the best agent in the bureau, or on the other hand, he is a bona-fide traitor. Hanssen has his secrets, but outwardly he is a patriot, a man with deep family values, and is a devout Roman Catholic, and yet O'Neill comes to see a deep discontinuity within him.

As O'Neill draws closer to Hanssen, Hanssen begins to trust his assistant and in due time we discover what his game actually is...or may be...all about. The wistful ending shows that the spy game is never quite black and white, and that sadness sometimes is the only authentic response to human imperfection.

Tightly directed by Billy Ray, whose work includes the notable Flightplan (2005) and the dismal Suspect Zero (2004), Breach works well, even if it simmers but never really sizzles. I always enjoy seeing the facially expressive Chris Cooper at work; he would probably have been typecast as a perrenial honest sheriff in the mid-20th-century era of the Western in American films- he'd be a great partner for Robert Duvall in something Western today. And Ryan Phillipe does nice work here, even if he is a bit wooden at times; a little more fluidity from him through Ray's direction might have spiced it up a bit. If you enjoy the darker kind of spy films, you will enjoy Breach.

Four Stars/ ****
 

  

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8