Breach

Posted by Maggie Van Ostrand (maggie@filmschoolrejects.com) on June 15, 2007

Billed as a “thriller,” this based-on-fact story of Robert Hanssen, the most prolific mole and double-agent ever to serve in the FBI, might have been suspenseful, had it been directed by Hitchcock. It certainly makes one appreciate all over again how great Hitchcock was because Billy Ray, who co-wrote the screenplay with Adam Mazer and William Rotco, was unable to engender or sustain suspense, not even with the heavy use of Mychael Danna’s score, obviously calculated to elicit audience anxiety. When the audience is aware it’s being manipulated by music, it’s not a good sign.

What saves this film is Chris Cooper’s stellar performance in the lead role. He imparts an exterior personna hardened by 25 years of FBI experience (20 of which found him selling top secret information to Russia) and an utterly calculating attitude toward his new assistant, Eric O’Neill (Ryan Phillippe). O’Neill is really a plant sent by Agent Kate Burroughs (Laura Linney in an uncharacteristically dull performance). For some reason, Linney adopted an irritating strident monotone. Perhaps director Ray thinks that’s how female FBI agents talk. Of course we know female agents all sound like Clarissa Starling.

Another fine actor, Kathleen Quinlan, who plays Hanssen’s wife, is so over-the-top it’s like she was meant to star in an Austin Powers movie and accidentally showed up for work on the wrong set.

Agent Rich Garces (Gary Cole) is in the large group of agents who have for years been trying unsuccessfully to prove Hanssen’s guilt. As Kate Burroughs says, “He’s been smarter than all of us.”

Aside from Chris Cooper, the fine acting talent of Dennis Haysbert as an FBI big shot, manages to shine through everyone else’s mediocre acting. With so many actors doing so poorly, one must place the responsibility on director Ray. Perhaps he should stick to writing screenplays.

Hanssen was on assignment in Russia for years before a newly suspicious Bureau had him reassigned to a bogus job in Washington where they hoped to get proof against him. It is not explained how or why they became suspicious.

The real Eric O’Neill, who remained an operative and did not stay long enough after Hanssen’s apprehension to make agent, left the FBI a few months after Hanssen was convicted. O’Neill is currently a lawyer in D.C., and has done several TV and radio interviews about Hanssen, including NPR, Nightline, and 45 minutes on C-Span.

Hanssen is currently serving a life sentence in isolation 23 hours each day. He is even worse off than Paris Hilton.

The film deals more with the man (father of 6 whose credo is “Faith, Family, Country,” who took videos of himself making love to his unsuspecting wife for the pleasure of friends, a devout Catholic who attended church daily) than with his actions as a double agent. It leaves one wondering how he got away with selling so many secrets for so long without apprehension.

Answers can be found on the DVD Extras, which include a March 6, 2001 Dateline TV show, “The Mole,” featuring interviews with Hanssen’s friends and FBI superiors, as well as the CIA. Many of his clever ruses and codes are explained and exposed, as is the surprise of many of his unsuspecting friends when they learned what he had been up to all those years.

Other features of the Extras are a documentary with Cooper, Ray, Linney, Phillippe, Quinlan, and the real Eric O’Neill, deleted and alternate scenes, and a snippet of the actual FBI surveillance film of Hanssen’s arrest. Ray says “We didn’t have to make anything up about Hanssen,” but of course they did. A check with the website, chasingthefrog.com lists those scenes in the movie which did not actually occur, as well as those that did.

It’s difficult to figure out why Breach was given a PG-13. There’s no nudity to speak of, no violence, no profanity. Sorry.

Read more articles by Maggie Van Ostrand