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Breach

Hollywood has catered many spy and espionage films to the world audience since a few decades, but rarely movies are based on true stories. Breach is partially based on a true story. In the opening credits, the scene is set by footage of former Attorney General John Ashcroft delivering his famous speech in which he announces that they have ultimately captured the person responsible for the greatest security leak in United States history. The movie is quite dramatic, engaging and full of wits and wills. Viewer may forget that it is based on the real life event and the last screen of ‘true story’ reminds it. It is a fulfilling sensation.

The story is about Eric O’Neill (Ryan Phillipe) and Robert Hanssen (Chris Cooper). O’Nill is a trainee cop for the FBI who is ambitious and determined to get promoted to full agent status. Hansenn has been a FBI’s smartest operatives and have spent several years serving FBI. However, he is suspected of giving secret information of the country to the rivals. Hanssen has been feeding top secret information to America’s enemies for over twenty years and the damage he has done ranks in the millions of dollars and his actions have lead to dozens of deaths. The FBI has been aware of his activities for some time, but they have yet to catch him in the act. Nabbing him red handed is crucial if they want to be able to arrest and interrogate him to uncover the complete nature of his betrayal. Eric O’Neill is assigned to ride the desk of Hanssen. He also happens to be suspected of posting explicit sexual content on the internet. Now painfully aware of the precarious duty he’s performing, O’Neill finds himself pitted against the greatest mind he’s ever known and the most treacherous spy ever to infiltrate the U.S. government.

Within his first few days on this new assignment, O’Neill begins to doubt the nature of the job. He finds Hanssen to be a strong Catholic family man with solid moral boundaries and a strong sense of pride in his work. As well, they both share distaste for the antiquated, self-indulgent security protocols within the FBI. When the restless O’Neill confronts Burroughs with his suspicions that they’re barking up the wrong tree, she lets him in on the real purpose of his assignment to Hanssen. The man’s dark side runs much deeper than internet naughtiness.

Pay no heed to the hype about Breach being an action thriller. It’s a suspenseful drama, but even the suspense is a stretch. The focus is on the intense relationship that O’Neill and Hanssen develop and the mind games they play as they try to peel away the layers they have each built around themselves. Chris Cooper is phenomenal as Hanssen. Even though he’s done a spate of these spy-type movies recently, he has a chance with the role of Hanssen to take things to a completely different level. The result is absolutely his best work yet. Ryan Phillipe does an admirable job of keeping up with his challenging co-star, but his rough edges show when he’s face to face with the likes of Cooper and Linney.

While based on a true story with a conclusion that many can probably guess, it doesn’t diminish the power of the finale. Though a little too neat and tidy, the ending leaves off with an image of Hanssen that is wonderfully ambiguous. I found myself left to debate the question of where the man ended and spy began and how the two co-existed in a single mind. It’s a delicious and thought provoking place to end, especially for a story taken from the real world of politics and espionage.