Agent double

I went to see a preview of this film last night and I will say that I enjoyed it very much, although it did drag somewhat in spots. The acting especially by Chris Cooper was very good and he was the spy, and the central figure in this spy thriller. The rest of the cast was adequate for their portrayals. This is a fascinatingg story of Robert Hannsen the spy who rivaled all other spies by handing the Russians the largest quantity of United States secrets. There is not a lot of action in this film but it held your interest throughout the film, because it is based on a true story and the writers enhanced the story and I for one enjoyed it very much. Do yourself a favor and go see this very good spy story.

Greetings again from the darkness. Writer/Director Billy Ray was the creative force behind "Shattered Glass" a few years ago and obviously is drawn to true stories of human deception. Here he takes on one of our biggest fears ... a federal agent who sells out his own country. Normally we only get these type of scenarios in LeCarre novels, but the story of FBI agent Robert Hanssen is a real life nightmare.

Perfect casting has Chris Cooper as the very odd Hanssen who has nearly 25 years with the bureau, many of which have been spent selling off national secrets to the Soviet Union. In an almost unbelievable stroke of luck, Hanssen was put in charge of finding the mole ... yes, his job was to find himself!! Cooper is very strong here as the ego-maniacal tortured soul who pulls off his deceit with a disarming devotion to religion, the bureau and blending. He appears to be just another working stiff pulling in a paycheck.

Most of the supporting staff is solid. Laura Linney is slightly miscast as the agent in charge of bringing Hanssen down. Dennis Haysbert is her boss. Gary Cole plays it straight here, and Kathleen Quinlan (as Hanssen's wife) and Bruce Davison (as Eric O'Neill's dad) have brief but effective turns. Caroline Dhavernas is an actress I am not familiar with, but her performance here has me intrigued.

The weak link in the film is Ryan Phillipe, who just doesn't possess the acting chops to pull off the pivotal role of Eric O'Neill - the agent wannabe who gets thrust into the crucial position of bringing Hanssen down. It is just implausible to believe Phillipe could ever pass the FBI entrance exam, much less outsmart the guy who outsmarted the entire bureau for two decades. Despite the weakness, the story is strong enough to overcome this and maintain the quasi-thriller feel. This is quite an accomplishment for a film when all the viewers know how it will end!! The real life Hanssen is spending life in prison and O'Neill immediately resigned from the bureau for the "normal" life of a Washington attorney. Part spy thriller, part history lesson, part psychoanalysis, "Breach" is very enjoyable despite the fact that we are provided no real answers as to WHY this man acted as he did. We are only led to believe that it wasn't the money, but instead the ego that drove his madness.

The performances were all just fine, the story had the potential to be intriguing, the characterizations ought to have been riveting.

Why then, was this movie so ho-hum? It felt like the director and writers didn't know what story they were trying to tell. Was it a character study of a traitor? No, we don't get much depth on Hanssen. Was it a taut thriller? No, there weren't thrills to speak of, and no real twists or turns. Was it an inside-the-FBI potboiler? No, we didn't learn much about the bureaucracy of intelligence.

At times, there were glimmers of each of these stories, but never any depth on any them. I felt like we skated along the surface of a story that would have been much more interesting viewed from underneath the ice.

I don't recommend spending the time on this, unless you really like looking at Ryan Phillipe. I do, and it still didn't elevate it.

Eric O'Neill is an ambitious young intel officer within the FBI, with hopes for more that he is currently being assigned. His hopes are both raised and dashed when he is assigned to work with veteran agent Robert Hanssen, who is a known sexual defiant. The FBI want to know who else has been involved with his internet postings and require O'Neill to log every action, every comment and find out as much as possible while essentially also working as a clerk. A job is a job but O'Neill finds himself quite liking the grouchy but amiable senior agent and wondering what the point of this assignment is, as he appears to be wasting his time.

Based on a true story, so I'm not sure how much of the detail (or even sweep) is true or artistic license, this is a quite satisfying drama that surprised me by how much I liked it. I hadn't heard anything really about it before watching it and I assumed it would be the usual spy thriller a la The Recruit, with twisty plots, running with guns and shouting. Instead what I got was a much slower and quieter drama that takes as much from the characters as it does from the story itself. It is not an easy sell but it works because the delivery "gets" what is required. The sweep of the narrative is engaging but what makes it succeed is the way it builds the two central characters so they are both of value to the viewer. I didn't think that O'Neill was the main character so much as a required device to get the audience involved with Hanssen. This allows the complex character to be built up and, while never totally understood, I was left with conflicting emotions about him and his motivations for what he did.

I have not put that very well but with this in mind the performances are key. I'm not a big fan of Phillippe to say the least but here he does good restrained work. He is not brilliant but he does just what the film needs. What he seems to benefit from is a great turn from Cooper. Cooper plays all the conflicting parts of his character really well so that, while not making total sense, they convince as reality. It is a great performance and he does make the film. In smaller roles Linney, Cole Quinlan and Haysbert are nice finds that add a sense of quality to the film. Dhavernas didn't work that well for me and it was just as well that her character's involvement was minimal.

Breach is a grown-up spy film, not one for those looking for twisty narrative with a running and shouting conclusion. It delivers a satisfying story where we already know the ending and it does it by building the characters and relationships around the lead two to draw the viewer in. The performances from Cooper and Phillippe are worthy of the material as well, doing it justice and making it work.

In 2001, the FBI clerk Eric O'Neill (Ryan Phillippe), who is a specialist in computer but wants to be an agent, is invited by agent Kate Burroughs (Laura Linney) to work with the senior agent Robert Hanssen (Chris Cooper) that had worked for many years in Soviet Union and now is assigned to protect the agency against electronic infiltration. Kate tells to Eric to write down the behavior of Hanssen in notes and send them to her since Hanssen would be a pervert under investigation of his sexual behavior.

Eric works with the bitter and rough Hanssen and he finds a family man and devout Catholic who earns his respect instead of a deviant. Further, his investigation and his relationship with Hanssen and his wife Bonnie (Kathleen Quinlan) affects Eric's wife Juliana (Caroline Dhavernas). Eric tells his opinion to Kate and she decides to tell the truth about Hanssen to him: he is a mole that sold many secrets to the Soviet Union and has compromised the identity of dozens of agents. Eric decides to go on in his assignment despite his friendship with Hanssen and the problems in his marriage.

"Breach" is an engaging and dramatic spy movie based on the true story of an FBI agent that was arrested for spying on 20 February 2001. I bought this DVD many years ago and only yesterday I decided to watch it and I found a great film.

The plot is developed in adequate pace and supported by magnificent performances of Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillippe and Laura Linney. The duel between Eric O'Neill and Robert Hanssen is fantastic. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Quebra de Confiança" ("Fail in Confidence")