Breach

Once more unto the breach

What's it about?
In 2001, senior FBI agent Robert Hanssen (Chris Cooper) was convicted of selling secrets to the Russians. 'The worst spy in history' – or the best, depending on how you look at it – rabid Catholic, devoted family man Hanssen was an unlikely candidate to have spent 22 years undermining his country. Breach is essentially the based-on-a-true-story of how young FBI agent Eric O'Neill (Ryan Phillippe) helped to bring Hanssen down.

What's it like?
Breach effectively straddles the line between flat-out thriller – there are plenty of sweaty palm, oh-my-god-he's-coming-back-early moments – and carefully drawn character piece.

While the inevitability of the ending undermines some of the tension – Hanssen's in prison, so it's a pretty safe bet he gets caught – director Billy Ray squeezes maximum mileage from the relationship between the apparent stalwart and young upstart. The overall story may be a black and white issue but the telling is all shades of grey.

Best bits:
The relationship between Hanssen and O'Neill is what gives this film its power, but the individual set-pieces – those aforementioned snoops around the office / Hanssen's property as the camera cuts to the double agent's unexpected early return – are effectively handled too.

They say: 'More John le Carre gravity than Ian Fleming glam, Breach succeeds more tellingly than Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd at revealing the human and moral toll of choosing betrayal as a vocation' - Pete Travers, Rolling Stone

We say: Well made, well acted and well written, this has quality stamped all over it. A very solid effort indeed.

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