Review: Great performances in ‘Breach’ detail real-life spy game

Directed by: Billy Ray

Starring: Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillippe, Laura Linney

Rated: PG-13

Johnny Rivers had a hit with the song “Secret Agent Man” in the 1960s. That decade saw the rise of the suave spy type. The James Bond character came along first, and TV shows like “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,” “I Spy,” and the western version of such things, “The Wild, Wild West,” were among the most popular shows of the decade. In all cases, the heroes were dapper ladies’ men who traveled to exotic locations, armed with hi-tech weapons and foiled evil geniuses while bedding a bevy of beautiful babes along the way. It was a glamorous life.

Real spies

In reality, the spy game was, and remains, a much different animal. Although the work is highly classified and the agents sometimes lead double lives, much spying work is done “at the office” by people virtually indistinguishable from middle-management types at any number of high-dollar companies around the world.

As far as traitors go, many names live in infamy. Judas and Benedict Arnold have become synonymous with treachery, and in the 20th century, Julius and Ethyl Rosenberg and Alger Hiss were convicted of treason and espionage. Hiss was jailed for a time; the Rosenbergs were executed.

Aldrich Ames was arrested in 1994, the first of the post-Cold War double agents to be caught. Ames was a flashy braggart, in the treason game for money.

2001 saw the arrest of the traitor who holds the record for most damage done with his covert activities. FBI agent Robert Hanssen sold secrets to the Soviet Union and then Russia from 1986 until his capture in February 2001.

Billy Ray’s new film, “Breach,” tells the story of Hanssen’s life in the few weeks before he was busted dumping a trash bag full of military secrets (his normal mode of delivery) near his Vienna, Va., home.

In the film, Chris Cooper plays Hanssen and does so with such a quiet, smoldering calm-on-the-outside-raging-on-the-inside intensity he will be a shoo-in for next year’s best actor nomination at Oscar time. This is no surprise. While not the most famous actor working today, Cooper is consistently among the finest.

True story

In January 2001, George W. Bush takes office and Agent Hanssen gets to head up a new division of the bureau. He’s assigned a personal assistant, agent-in-training Eric O’Neill (Ryan Phillippe). O’Neill is actually working undercover at the behest of Agent Kate Burroughs (Laura Linney) who heads an in-agency investigation of Hanssen. She tells O’Neill that Hanssen is suspected of being a sexual deviant. The audience already knows the actual situation, from news accounts some 16 years ago. Burroughs’ team is sure Hanssen is the mole the agency has been looking for the past several years, but they have to catch him in the act. This is different from a previous operation that lasted several years. That time, the identity of the mole was never uncovered – maybe because Hanssen had headed the project.

The more O’Neill gets to know Hanssen, the more incredulous he becomes. Hanssen is a family man – six kids and a wife of many years – who goes to Mass regularly and seems to be an all-around straight arrow.

To keep him on board, Burroughs has to let O’Neill in on the facts. The agent-to-be has even more trouble believing the real situation.

That the ending is a foregone conclusion doesn’t dampen the tension in “Breach” in the least. Cooper’s portrayal of Hanssen who, at times, seems to have extrasensory perception is riveting. As the character develops, we see that Hanssen appears not in the game for money, rather for the sheer thrill and power of being smarter than the people frantically looking for the mole.

There’s no extended gunplay, very little (though some rather twisted) sex and no “swingin’ on the Riviera.” Still, “Breach” is a taut spy thriller with the first great acting performance of 2007.

Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield freelance writer and musician. He can be reached at info@wunderlesound.com.[[In-content Ad]]