Roedy Green
Breach is a cat and mouse story, about two real people, an American spy who sells secrets to the Russians and his assistant whose job (along with a large team) it is to catch him.The tension is unrelenting with not even a few seconds of comic relief.Hanson, the spy, is an egotistical, paranoid genius, a sort of Sherlock Holmes type who considers every possibility and notices every detail. Oddly he is fanatical, proselytising Catholic. This made no sense to me. How could someone so involved in logic have been entrapped by the mumbo-jumbo of Catholicism? I gather the real world Hansen was.The basic plot is will our young clerk avoid giving himself away to the master spy? Time pressure drives much of the plot, without being contrived.Chris Cooper's Hansen is as memorable and strange as Hannibal Lecter. Ryan Phillippe usually plays bland exceedingly handsome young men. As Eric O'Neill, he is still handsome, but his character has much more depth and interest.Some of the tech-talk was silly. Some of the computer screens were plagiarised from the Matrix.They put the spy in charge of a new department two months before his retirement. This should have raised his suspicions. Apparently, it did not. His assistant seems to have nothing to do except drive a car every once in a while. To me, this makes no sense.Most of the movie takes place in a grim windowless office.
RebeccaofSunnybrookfarm
The story of an FBI agent who made money off selling secrets to Russians was a heart breaker. My heart broke for his victims, for him being deceived by the clerk he grew to love, and for him as a child. Hanssen was a convert to Catholicism who learned how to do what "looked good" from his wife. Upon further research, I learned he was emotionally abused as a child proving emotional child abuse does lifelong damage and should be outlawed. We can say that his father wasn't just abusing a child; he was putting his country and its citizens' safety in jeopardy. Child abuse can have exponential consequences, while the harm done to the child is grave. I don't mean to excuse him, just elucidate the causal factors.
Bene Cumb
As we had a similar case in Estonia some years ago (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Simm), it was interesting to watch this movie - and I found lots of similarities between the Hanssen and Simm cases: making fuss about petty things and strict relationships with subordinates, for instance. The plot is intense, all actor are good or great (beginning with Chris Cooper and Ryan Phillipe, whose mutual dialogs are full of intensity and exactness). Even if you know the result, it is fascinating to monitor the events leading to this solution.However, it is still awkward how a person with such experience (Hanssen) was not suspicious in his new job and new room; a "contra-cam" could have disclosed already initiated investigations.Well, recommended to those fond of "silent spying".
Claudio Carvalho
In 2001, the FBI clerk Eric O'Neill (Ryan Phillippe), who is a specialist in computer but wants to be an agent, is invited by agent Kate Burroughs (Laura Linney) to work with the senior agent Robert Hanssen (Chris Cooper) that had worked for many years in Soviet Union and now is assigned to protect the agency against electronic infiltration. Kate tells to Eric to write down the behavior of Hanssen in notes and send them to her since Hanssen would be a pervert under investigation of his sexual behavior.Eric works with the bitter and rough Hanssen and he finds a family man and devout Catholic who earns his respect instead of a deviant. Further, his investigation and his relationship with Hanssen and his wife Bonnie (Kathleen Quinlan) affects Eric's wife Juliana (Caroline Dhavernas). Eric tells his opinion to Kate and she decides to tell the truth about Hanssen to him: he is a mole that sold many secrets to the Soviet Union and has compromised the identity of dozens of agents. Eric decides to go on in his assignment despite his friendship with Hanssen and the problems in his marriage."Breach" is an engaging and dramatic spy movie based on the true story of an FBI agent that was arrested for spying on 20 February 2001. I bought this DVD many years ago and only yesterday I decided to watch it and I found a great film.The plot is developed in adequate pace and supported by magnificent performances of Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillippe and Laura Linney. The duel between Eric O'Neill and Robert Hanssen is fantastic. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Quebra de Confiança" ("Fail in Confidence")
AD
