Infamousta brilliant actors, brilliant editing

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

SnoopyStyle It's two months before the arrest of Robert Hanssen (Chris Cooper) for espionage in 2001. Eric O'Neill (Ryan Phillippe) is ambitious, desperate to be an FBI agent and married to Juliana (Caroline Dhavernas). He is assigned by Kate Burroughs (Laura Linney) to investigate senior agent Hanssen who is a computer expert, former Soviet analyst and a suspected sexual deviant. Hanssen is lured back to headquarters in a new division and O'Neill is inserted as his assistant. Hanssen is arrogant and looks down on his superior Rich Garces (Gary Cole).Director Billy Ray's first film "Shattered Glass" is one of the few films that Hayden Christensen is actually good in. I think that's not an accident. Chris Cooper is terrific and Ryan Phillippe is not that bad either as an eager beaver. The trick for Ryan is to portray a smart guy who still falls for Hanssen. I also love the unflashy style for the FBI setting. It has the feel of reality. The muted colors fit the icy tension and a cold-hearted espionage case. The flash comes from the actors and the relationships they build. Chris Cooper deserves some recognition for his work here.

secondtake Breach (2007)The big arc here is the uncovering of a spy within the FBI, based on a true story. And that's interesting. But the movie works because of the mental and emotional sparring between the two leads. First is the spy, Robert Hanssen, played brilliantly by Chris Cooper. He pulls off the brilliance and eccentricity you might get with this kind of person, and all without stagy exaggeration. This is a spy and a spy story worthy of John Le Carre.Next to him is the young FBI worker, not yet an agent, Eric O'Neill, played by Ryan Phillippe. He's excellent enough to support Cooper, for sure, though he (maybe by necessity) is a more bland type. His struggle with why he (of all the FBI people possible) has been given the huge job of bringing this other man down is key to his depth.Both men have wives, and both women are good—Hanssen's wife is played by Kathleen Quinlan and though we don't see her much, she's really good. And generally the cast supports this chilling, dry, steady intrigue. In other ways, the movie is a bit conventional—professionally made, you might say, but without stylistic distinction. It's no breakthrough masterpiece. But what it tries to do telling this story it does with spare, direct force. This is no adventure tale —there is no real action. But that's good. It's compelling and interesting.Since this is "history" or "based on truth" it's worth saying that only the large facts are followed. All the fun movie stuff—the meeting of the wives, the pistol shooting in two scenes, the sex stuff, and so on—are all invented. Apparently life is either too dull or too dangerous to really put on film.But that's okay. It's a strong story. And Cooper steals the day.

Desertman84 Breach is a historical drama film directed by Billy Ray. The screenplay by Ray, Adam Mazer, and William Rotko is based on the true story of Robert Hanssen, an FBI agent convicted of spying for the Soviet Union and later Russia for more than two decades, and Eric O'Neill, who worked as his assistant and helped bring about his downfall. Chris Cooper and Ryan Philippe star in this fact-based drama concerning the FBI traitor who carried out what many historians refer to as the most notable national security breach in U.S. history. A key member of the FBI's elite Soviet Analytical Unit, Robert Hanssen (Cooper) would, for 15 years beginning in 1985, sell thousands of pages of classified documents to the Soviets. After making roughly 600,000 dollars on his clandestine endeavor and compromising everything from the identities of KGB spies working for the American government to nuclear war contingency plans, Hanssen was eventually transferred to a newly created position at the FBI's Washington headquarters and assigned the task of guarding his country's most sensitive secrets. It was while working in this capacity that a young agent named Eric O'Neill (Phillipe) was assigned the task of keeping tabs on Hanssen by suspicious higher-ups. Later, after being arrested while delivering a cache of secret documents to a "dead drop" spot in a Virginia park, the notorious traitor was arrested and sentenced to life in prison with no chance for parole.Powered by Chris Cooper's masterful performance, Breach is a tense and engaging portrayal of the FBI's infamous turncoat.He is the is the principal reason why this unspectacular, low-key study of the Hanssen national security fiasco is so effective.The movie soars because of it.Aside from that,it is an espionage thriller which focuses on strong character development, performances and setting that it feels so realistic and far from being contrived.Overall,it is an enjoyable, slow-burning thriller with an intelligent script that it should be classified as a must-see.

Angela Peckham Here's a film with all the usual suspects of a stylish cat and mouse thriller: agents, double agents, entrapments, liars and loyalties... But as it turns out, these are mere accessories to a script which itself is a weak psychological portrait of an aging spy who doesn't really seem to be fooling anyone after all. Despite my love for Chris Cooper, his all-important character never quite feels dangerous or cunning enough to bring the audience to the edge of their seats. Plus, the writing is relatively flat for this genre - no twists, no complications, no surprises. Not that we always need to be shocked by the turn of movie events, but the plot never develops past the first motivation, to convict "the worst traitor in U.S. History." But we know he is. It's a true story, we already know the basic details. This movie fails to find the drama beneath the account. On the other hand, despite its mediocrities, the movie is still not bad. The camera-work is clean and subtle, the characters are not uninteresting, the acting works... A six star achievement. I only wish I had been convinced by the film that these events had the magnitude for a more dramatic realization.