In 2001, noted FBI agent Robert Hanssen was arrested on the charge or treason for selling US secrets to the Soviet Union. In 2007, director Billy Ray brought us this dramatic representation of the events leading up to Hanssen's arrest just months before mandatory retirement after a long and successful career with the FBI.
Ryan Phillippe plays Eric O'Neill, a young buck looking to make his career in the FBI, and who is willing to take on any assignment if it will lead to his being made an agent. He's displeased, to say the least, when he's pulled off a high-profile observation case to be personal assistant to Robert Hanssen (Chris Cooper). O'Neill discovers Hanssen to be pious, generally likeable, but with an insatiable paranoid streak that just doesn't quite fit with his success.
As time goes on, O'Neill becomes further intertwined with Hanssen's life. He goes to church with him and forsakes family engagements to be at his beck and call, causing some marital strife and wreaking havoc on his nerves. Finally, as O'Neill's suspicions mount, it is revealed why he was assigned to Hanssen in the first place...to keep an eye on him. The department he'd been made head of was a cover, an excuse to keep Hanssen close and uncover evidence against him before his retirement.
I had not previously read anything about this event, no books or newspaper articles or the like, but this movie definitely made me want to. Since first watching Breach, I have read "The Bureau and the Mole: The Unmasking of Robert Philip Hanssen, the Most Dangerous Double Agent in FBI History" by David A. Vise. Going by that book, this movie seems to be fairly accurate though not entirely. The basic plot is one that has been seen before but, as I always told my then-significant other, "you can't blame them when it's a true story!"
Chris Cooper plays to perfection the role of an elderly agent who knows his days in the career he's lived for so long are coming to an end, with all the fears and insecurities that come along with that realization. Cooper always has been able to portray intense emotions on-screen and that's one of the main things that makes him so perfect for this role. Between the paranoia, the fear, the anger and the brief moments of cheer, many emotions are called for in this role. Cooper has what it takes to play a man branded as a traitor with compassion and even make his audience feel sorry for the guy...or at least I know I did, despite the things he did to his country.
Ryan Phillippe has never really been one to impress me and he just didn't quite convince me playing opposite Chris Cooper. That's not to say he did a bad job...he did do well, just didn't quite seem to connect with everyone else, including the boss he'd befriended or his on-screen wife. Even in one scene where his life is in mortal danger and he's supposed to be on the verge of panic, he just doesn't convince me. Despite Phillippe's shortcomings this was a fairly well-acted movie starring Laura Linney, Gary Cole and Dennis Haysbert amongst others.
As for the plot...for one who has never heard the story before, I'd say the plot is sufficiently suspenseful and certainly had me wondering more than once how this
guy could have ended up being arrested for treason (the arrest took place in the very beginning, then flashed back to the preceding events).
Overall this is an excellent drama with some great acting and, so far as I know, some good details on actual events (though I'll be able to say more on that subject after I've further researched the event in question). There is a lot of foul language and some violence so definitely something for the older viewers, but a great Friday night action/drama that keeps a steady pace with only a couple of slow parts around the middle. All-in-all, a film worth watching.