Film: Breach
Cast includes: Chris Cooper (Seabiscuit), Ryan Phillippe (Crash), Laura Linney (Kinsey)
Director: Billy Ray (Shattered Glass)
Genre: Historic-based drama (2007)
In brief: On February 20, 2001, US Attorney General, John Ashcroft announced the arrest of Robert Hanson, the spy at the center of the worst breach of US security in history. The movie starts 2 months earlier, when Eric O’Neil is being tasked to HQ reporting to Kate Burroughs. Eric had been on the fast track… a rising star in the FBI. Now he is being assigned to keep an eye on Robert Hanson, a suspected sexual deviant in the FBI. The cover story is that Hanson is being put in charge of a new section, and Eric is his assistant. Eric is to tell no one and to report only to Kate. When #7 comes up on his pager, Eric is to call Kate immediately.
It’s a lot of security measures for a “perversion detail.” Nothing about it feels right to Eric… including the treatment he gets from his new boss. Hanson is demanding, opinionated and brutal with criticism. Not only does Hanson show no signs of being a sexual deviant, he seems determined to bring everyone around him to God. Eric is subjected to endless lectures… not only on God but on failed FBI procedures. Hanson constantly tells Eric that he can read people better than any lie detector… an unnerving assertion, given the fact that Eric’s whole relationship with Hanson is a lie. If things are uncomfortable at the beginning of the assignment, they are only going to get worse as the plot thickens.
Eric O’Neil, the character at the center of the movie, was the one who brought this story to the filmmakers. And he continued to be involved in the project throughout the film’s production. While elements of the story have been modified for dramatic appeal, the essence of it is based on actual events. The action is fairly tame, compared to the Bourne movies, for example. Instead of advanced tech toys, the characters are working with outdated computers and squeaky desk furniture. As most spy movies get flashier and flashier, it’s worth mixing in a little true-life spy drama once in a while.
2 popped kernels
Worth watching. Not terribly memorable.
