Monday Movie Review: Breach

Breach (2007) 9/10
FBI agent Robert Hanssen (Chris Cooper) has been spying on behalf of the Russians for many years, and cost the government untold human lives, money, and secrets. Eric O'Neill (Ryan Phillipe) is assigned to work as his assistant while spying on him and reporting to Kate Burroughs (Laura Linney), who is heading the investigation. Based on a true story.

Real spy stories are hard to find, and probably hard to sell as well. Throughout the course of Breach there are no explosions, no high speed car chases, no jaw-dropping stunts, no exotic women slipping themselves between the sheets of secret agents. This is a story about spies with government jobs and paychecks, whose stealth involves slipping a Palm Pilot from a briefcase and then remembering which pocket to replace it in. You can see why this might be hard to make a compelling preview for, but Breach is a fascinating movie.

The movie is largely a character study, exploring the nature of loyalty and secrecy. By the very fact of working for the FBI, Hanssen and O'Neill are expected to be loyal to their country. As O'Neill spends more and more time with Hanssen, he feels loyalty towards him as well, affection for the man, and perhaps just the natural loyalty engendered by covering your boss's ass. Even knowing the man is a traitor, he finds he admires him.

On the opposite side of loyalty is secrecy. O'Neill's loyalty to his job requires he keep his investigation secret from his wife (Caroline Dhavernas), and as the Hanssens and O'Neills becomes more and more involved socially, this is increasingly difficult, and strains the O'Neill's young marriage.

The movie is also about anger and guilt. Hanssen is smart, maybe the smartest guy in his department, and he feels unappreciated and superior. He is obsessed with never having received a window office. He is angry at beaurocrats, angry at routine, angry at stupidity, and angry when his suggestions aren't acted upon. Is he also guilty? He is a staunch Catholic, a member of Opus Dei, and eager to push religion on O'Neill and his Protestant wife. He attends mass daily and prays often, meanwhile betraying his country and making pornographic videos of his wife without her knowledge. Surely there is guilt there, and surely there is extra motivation to attend mass and confess his sins (although we never see Hanssen in confession; one wonders what, if anything, he ever confessed).

The investigation takes a toll on O'Neill, although that was the least compelling part of the story, perhaps because Phillipe isn't doing all that much with the part (he's very good, but I dunno, not great). It is Cooper who is the fascinating one, and Laura Linney is wonderful as usual.

Double O Section offers a good review of the DVD features, which I was unable to watch.

(I have secretly cross-posted this in small, unmarked bills.)