I can imagine no better man [than Chris Cooper] to play the enigma at the center of Breach.
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
A thriller with no thrills, a true story minus a single interesting truth, a real-life tale with all the fascination scraped off to leave only a residue of tedious facts.
Tense, understated and often funny spy thriller about a real-life CIA traitor.
Breach is the sort of studiously serious, well-made, based-on-fact film that critics go crazy for and audiences find earnestly dull and eminently avoidable.
Breach is a good cloak-and-dagger tale and telling this complex story through O'Neill proves a brilliant way to watch Hanssen's schemes unravel.
A spellbinding real-life suspense thriller so incredible that even Hollywood couldn't make it up.
Better-focused than The Good Shepherd, and its story is more interesting.
We know from the outset that Hanssen, brilliantly played by Chris Cooper, is guilty. What we don't know is how the FBI caught him, and that's what director Billy Ray's carefully detailed and absorbing movie tells us.
It's not just that Breach looks terrific compared with the dreck Hollywood has thrown on screen so far this year, though there is that. No, Breach has the early-season intelligence and intriguing casting of last year's Inside Man.
This isn't one of those labyrinthine works of deception that doubles back on itself at every turn. Breach is content to tell a strong story with the utmost efficiency and let its cast do the heavy lifting.
About the only thing ineffective about Breach is the humdrum title. Everything else in this smart thriller works like a perfectly crafted Latin Square puzzle.
Former FBI agent Robert Hanssen is now serving a life sentence for his long career as a Russian and Soviet spy, but this rote thriller implies he should have done prison time just for being Catholic.
Cooper captures all of [Hanssen's] complexities and more, encapsulating in one performance a hard-assed boss, exasperated techno geek, amusing old-fashioned conservative and loving family man.
tersely written and directed... Although there are suspenseful sequences in this compelling story, Ray and Cooper concentrate on the moral confusion surrounding the key players in the Hanssen scandal.
Rather than being a high-action thriller, Breach is more of a slow burn through the night.
There's precious little espionage where we can see it, and that's what makes the movie such a compelling and eerily effective little drama.
Powerhouse performances by Chris Cooper and Laura Linney highlight this taut political thriller.
Ray isn't beyond teasing out implications from his true stories, but he's also smart enough to know where to quit, allowing the viewer to resolve the whys and wherefores.
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