Despite a career-best turn from Chris Cooper, however, Breach is a weirdly muted affair.
Comment
08/28/07
Breach (2007)
84
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:170
Fresh:142
Rotten:28
Average Rating:7/10
Consensus: Powered by Chris Cooper's masterful performance, Breach is a tense and engaging portrayal of the FBI's infamous turncoat.
Theatrical Release:31-08-2007
Synopsis: Chris Cooper (ADAPTATION) gives a remarkable performance as complicated and bitter FBI agent Robert Hanssen in BREACH. Hanssen is a computer specialist who, after 25 years of service, is put under... [More]
Starring: Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillippe, Kathleen Quinlan, Laura Linney
Director: Billy Ray
Reviews for Breach
Top CriticAn effective and meticulous character drama, Breach doesn't quite make the most of its story but still tells a fascinating tale, aided by Chris Cooper's magnetic central performance.
08/31/07
Top CriticIn the face of such a towering performance from Cooper, Phillippe keeps his end up while Laura Linney, as his handler, delivers the kind of turn we’ve come to expect from one of America’s finest movie actresses.
08/31/07
Intriguing and intelligent, Breach may be too understated for its own good.
08/31/07
Top CriticCold and cerebral, with simmering suspense rather than outright excitement, this is a feel-the-quality-of-the-acting movie. It can’t answer all sorts of questions, but does take a scary mug shot of a subtle monster.
08/03/07
Top CriticAn interestingly told tale: melancholy, thoughtful, and very un-American.
08/31/07
Top CriticA sombre game of cat-and-mouse. What it lacks in genuine tension it amply compensates in the understated performances of the two leads.
08/31/07
Cooper gives a great performance as a man now spending 23 hours a day in solitary confinement, serving a life sentence without the prospect of probation.
09/08/07
Slow and steady, sure-handed and gripping.
03/03/07
Breach rarely treads new ground, but the set pieces are used so sparingly and with such focus on the central characters, the movie reaches a degree of tension you might not think possible.
08/31/07
Chris Cooper, who won an Oscar for his supporting role in Adaptation, gives a brilliant poker-faced performance as Hanssen and Ryan Phillippe is also convincing as O’Neill.
08/31/07
Breach is slow, but never ponderous, and not at all like your average spy thriller. It has less obvious thrills and more depth.
08/31/07
Tense, fascinating, worthwhile.
08/31/07
Top CriticDespite a couple of tense set pieces, the suspense needed to ignite this film is disappointingly lacking.
08/31/07
Top CriticSlow-burning and sombre, Breach won’t be for everyone. But it’s worth catching for Cooper’s performance, while its fact-based tale of treachery will strike a chord in today’s climate of suspicion.
08/31/07
Top CriticEnjoyable, slow-burning thriller with an intelligent script and strong performances from its two leads.
08/31/07
Rather than being a high-action thriller, Breach is more of a slow burn through the night.
02/16/07
Breach is a very good film with a lot of strong elements; had it exploited those elements a little more, it would have been a great film.
02/21/07
Its title reads like a John Grisham pot-boiler, but it's much more than that. Along with a good sized dollop of intrigue, we are also treated to a fascinating character study.
06/15/07
Because this espionage thriller is based on true events, it's a given that the bad guy will be caught. But [director] Ray builds an intriguing maze around the how, seen through the eyes of the audience's proxy, a young FBI man sent to spy on a colleague.
02/15/07
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