While possibly too early to create the needed Oscar buzz for 2008, Cooper deserves to be remembered at this time next year. He's that good.
Breach (2007)
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.
Rated: 12A [See Full Rating] for violence, sexual content and language.
Runtime: 3 hrs 42 mins
Genre: Dramas
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... 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 surveillance as a suspected sex offender. Eric O'Neill (Ryan Phillippe, CRASH) is the ambitious young upstart they put on the job, assigning him to pose as Hanssen's new clerk in order to win his trust and keep an eye on his every move. Eric is dismayed to be put on such low-priority detail, accustomed as he is to investigating high-profile terrorism suspects. His reluctance is multiplied as he gets to know the subject of his inquiry; Hanssen is at first harsh towards his young secretary, but as he opens up, Eric gets to know and respect him as a family man of strong Catholic faith. Soon, however, Hanssen is infiltrating Eric's personal life and causing problems between him and his wife, Juliana (Caroline Dhavernas, HOLLYWOODLAND), and just when Eric is about to give up the case, he discovers that it is much bigger than he ever imagined. Eric finds himself in the middle of an investigation into the biggest security breach in U.S. history, forcing him to resort to dramatic and ingenious tactics in order to bring down the suspect. Director Billy Ray's first directorial effort was the dramatization of the Stephen Glass scandal at the D.C. magazine The New Republic in SHATTERED GLASS, and here he once again turns his eye--with great success--to a true story with a complex villain. Cooper's excellent characterization invites pity and horror in equal measure; his performance is well supported in this character-driven thriller by Laura Linney (KINSEY) as the hard-nosed agent leading the investigation, and Phillippe as the resourceful and introspective O'Neill. [More]
Starring: Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillippe, Kathleen Quinlan, Laura Linney
Starring: Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillippe, Kathleen Quinlan, Laura Linney, Gary Cole, Dennis Haysbert, Caroline Dhavernas, Bruce Davison
Director: Billy Ray
Director: Billy Ray
Producer: Scott Kroopf
Composer: Mychael Danna
Studio: Universal Pictures
Reviews for Breach
[Director] Ray ("Shattered Glass") made the paper pursuit of plagiarism more thrilling than espionage.
With remarkably simple and effective performances by Ryan Phillippe as O'Neill and Chris Cooper as Hanssen, Breach is a slow, thoughtful duet for two very different, but equally impressive men, both complex and 'real.'
The gamesmanship going on in the heads of Cooper and Phillippe makes Breach intensely involving.
Chris Cooper's portrayal is so touching that one cannot help feeling sympathy for the man.
Ray's careful emphasis on authenticity over thrills and psychology over action is impeded by this narrative's narrow window: there's so much we can't know about what Hanssen did and why.
Breach is competently made but, aside from Cooper's performance, there's nothing here worth getting excited about.
With the war in Iraq still raging and general international unrest looming around every corner, audiences are less interested in glib, glossy, brawny takes on the spy world.
A well-paced, intelligent thriller that's easily the most pleasant surprise of the year so far.
Though you know from the start just how it's going to end, Breach, based on the true story of a treasonous FBI operative, is an edge-of-the-seat thriller.
Subtle, complex, bleakly funny at times, but always utterly enveloping, one of the great studies in profoundly abnormal psychology.
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