In association with

Breach [2007]
from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
starring Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillippe, Kathleen Quinlan, Gary Cole, Laura Linney
directed by Billy Ray

Features:

• PAL

Editorial Review:

Is a mystery really mysterious when the end isn't a secret? Is espionage still thrilling when you know beforehand that the cloak has been pulled back and the dagger revealed? If it's a film as good as Breach, the answer is a resounding yes. Here is a true story that's genuinely stranger than fiction: FBI agent Robert Hanssen spent over 20 years selling government secrets to the Russians, making him the most egregious traitor in U.S. history. He was an Opus Dei Catholic and a devout churchgoer who was also a sexual deviant, a straitlaced company man so trusted by his employers that they once appointed him to lead an investigation designed to reveal who the spy was--when in fact it was Hanssen himself. And in the end, he was brought down in part by 26-year-old Eric O'Neill, an agent-in-training who worked with him for just two months. Chris Cooper, a 2003 supporting actor Oscar winner for Adaptation, is brilliant in the lead role, playing Hanssen as a dour, cold, ultra-conservative cypher (women in suits are just one of his peeves) whose conversations more closely resemble interrogations. Ryan Phillippe is also excellent as O'Neill, who's initially kept in the dark by the superior (Laura Linney) who assigned him to help expose Hanssen's treachery; thinking he's been brought in only to gather evidence about his boss's sexual transgressions, O'Neill finds himself caught in a profound moral conundrum, grudgingly admiring Hanssen even as his own marriage is severely tested by the older man's creepy and hypocritical intrusion into their lives, not to mention the FBI's strict rules against discussing the case.

Director Billy Ray (whose previous feature was also a true story: Shattered Glass, about the young writer who fabricated stories for The New Republic) and co-screenwriters Adam Mazer and William Rotko do an extraordinary job of maintaining the tension as the story leads to the conclusion that's been revealed in the first few frames (i.e., Hanssen's arrest in February 2001); the exquisite torture of O'Neill's having to keep Hanssen distracted while Bureau technicians search the latter's car is but one example. Moreover, notwithstanding the plot developments, the filmmakers manage to keep their focus on the personal interactions that are the film's key element: the relationships that O'Neill maintains with Hanssen, his father (a cameo by Bruce Davison), his wife (Caroline Dhavernas), and others are entirely credible. At once fascinating and horrifying, Breach is inarguably one of the best films of 2007. --Sam Graham

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

• Outstanding performance by
  Chris Cooper is what makes this film unmissable. Acting at its very best. I don't like Ryan Philippe but even he turns in a more than adequate turn here. But watch it for Cooper. Extraordinary!

• Treachery in high places
  "Breach" is that rarity in films today ; an intelligent,gripping thriller.In the past there seemed to be a lot of films of this type ,but not so today. The film concerns itself with the discovery of a mole within the FBI who has been supplying intelligence secrets to the Russians for decades.This traitor,Robert Hanssen, is played superbly well by Chris Cooper who really gets under the character's skin. Cooper has been reassigned to a high level job in IT and Ryan Philippe plays his new clerk Eric O'Neill,... more info

• wolf in sheeps clothing.....
  This is the true story of how the FBI closed in on probably the best spy to ever breach their security. It's not a fast paced thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat but it is interesting - probably because you know it happened (Not word for word but how much can they get away with making up really?!)
  Ryan Phillipe (Eric) does an impressive job as the rooky who is picked to go undercover on the case even though he isn't actually an agent yet, only looking to impress so he can become one.... more info

• A slow paced thriller based on true events
  A Traitor, a Thriller and a True story - three T's that come to mind. Breach is a slow story outlining the greatest ever spy working in the FBI against the US. It centres around a sting operation, where an undercover clerk goes in to investigate his boss (Chris Cooper), a long serving FBI agent who is suspected of selling secrets to the Russians.
  Like I mentioned before, the story is somewhat slow paced, there are a number of exciting scenes but I'm assuming the pace reflects the tension of the main... more info

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