Breach

Breach tells the story of Robert Hanssen, played Chris Cooper, a twenty five year veteran of the FBI who is caught and convicted of treason for sharing top secret government information with Russia. Hanssen is eventually undone by his protégé and young FBI upstart Eric O’Neill, Ryan Phillipe, who gains Hanssen’s trust over time. Hanssen puts O’Neill through a number of different tests to determine his mental resolve and as well as testing his faith. By risking his marriage as well as his personal safety, O’Neill puts everything on the line in getting to Hansenn to trust him enough to make one final dead drop so that the FBI can catch him in the act of sharing secrets.

This was an enjoyable movie for two reasons; firstly Cooper and Phillipe work well together. This movie further cements my opinion that Ryan Phillipe really doesn’t work enough. He is one of Hollywood’s young pretty boys who goes largely unappreciated for ability. It would have been easy to have Cooper shrivel up around Phillipe in order for his character to come across as a believable pupil worth of getting the upper hand in the mental chess match they play. Instead Phillipe was able to take the lead in the scenes when he was required to dominate back down in instance when it is clear Cooper needs to be in charge.

In addition to the back and forth between the two main characters on such issues as religion, marriage, self preservation, and duty to country, the strength of this movies also resides in director Bill Ray’s ability to keep a virtually “action-less” script moving on screen. It is difficult to make scene of dialogue interesting and upbeat, but with the talent on screen and the material Ray does an excellent job of keeping the movie going.

GRADE - A-