Pluskylang Great Film overall

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

zkonedog Many films based on a true story are either hampered by their source material or dragged down by uninspired transition from reality to screen. "Breach" is an exception to this rule by provided high drama and suspense even whey you know what is coming and how everything will turn out.For a basic plot summary, "Breach" sees young FBI recruit Eric O'Neill (Ryan Phillippe) tabbed by the Bureau to spy on senior agent Robert Hanssen (Chris Cooper), who is both a sexual deviant and a traitor and thus an embarrassment/risk to the organization.For me, this movie succeeded on two different levels:First, of course, is the tension in trying to catch the most accomplished spy in United States history. Not until the very end of the film do viewers find out if Hanssen is on to the investigators, thus creating suspense in nearly every scene.Second, and perhaps most importantly, is the portrait painted of Hanssen. There are so many discrepancies between "Hanssen the spy" & "Hanssen the man" that puzzling through them leads to a fascinating character study. Without knowing "the whole story" (and you won't, unless you have prior knowledge of the case, until the very end of the movie) about Hanssen, you will (at times) actually find yourself agreeing with many things he says/does. He is an intensely conflicted individual, to be sure, and those types of personalities just translate well onto the big screen. I give director Billy Ray props for that transition.About the only reason I can't give this film the full five stars (4.5 would more more accurate) is because it could have focused so much more on WHY Hanssen was doing his espionage to begin with. This is hinted at throughout the movie, but I felt it needed to be better developed in order to take "Breach" to that "next level".Overall, "Breach" is a great flick that tells an intriguing story about a real-life individual. The acting is top-notch, the suspense/drama is palpable, and the morality issues & character development are superb. If you like political films in particular, this one will rocket to the top of your "favorites" list.

classicalsteve How do you catch a spy? Very carefully. In this case, the spy worked for the FBI. So, lure him back to the agency and claim he's being "promoted". Also, to add to the mix, give him his own assistant. This is how Robert Hannsen, possibly the most notorious double-agent who spied for Soviet/Russian intelligence was eventually caught.The film begins in the early days of the George W. Bush presidential administration. John Ashcroft is the new Attorney General, head of the Department of Justice, and the FBI resides under that department. Robert Hannsen is brought back to the FBI and told that he is assigned the task of overseeing the technical side of FBI security. He is given an assistant, Eric O'Neill, who, unknown to Hannsen, is a counter-intelligence operative working undercover. O'Neill's task: to monitor Hannsen. Later, he learns the full truth: Hannsen is perhaps the most notorious of spies who traded US secrets to the Soviet Union/Russian State for over two decades. Will O'Neill be able to simultaneously play dutiful but clueless assistant, while trying to uncover the secrets about Hannsen? A good film, which is slightly different than the real story, but mostly on the mark. Apparently, O'Neill knew from the beginning about Hannsen, although in the film, he doesn't find out the whole truth until near midway through. Also, there were several very interesting episodes involving Hannsen prior to his "surveillance" which would have been very interesting to include, such as the recognition of Hannsen's voice on a tape included in a package from a Soviet informant that the government played $7 million for. (An excerpt is played in the film.) Still an excellent film, with highest marks going to Chris Cooper as Hannsen.

juneebuggy This was pretty good for such a dry, slow-burning movie, it drags at times but still manages to keep a level of tension and suspense going throughout and I id end up really enjoying this. Ultimately it was the strong performances from both Chris Cooper and Ryan Phillippe that saved this for me.Cooper is intense and creepy here displaying a range of mystique. Laura Linney as his handler was quite bitchy. Ryan plays an FBI Trainee who is assigned to keep en eye on a fellow agent suspected of selling information to the soviets. Its his first real case and initially he's not even sure what he's looking for. 7/17/14

patrick powell Whenever a film I am about to watch is prefaced by the legend 'based on a true story' or a variation of such, my heart sinks. And usually it sinks with good reason. The legend is almost always a studio device to acquire a little something extra for its film, usually duplicitously, which it doesn't deserve. Breach, thank goodness, is the exception which proves the rule.Robert Hannsen, here admirably and interestingly played by Chris Cooper, was a real-life traitor who is now serving life without parole in jail for his treachery. We also know that he was or purported to be - given the unfathomable enigma he presents to this day, how can we know what is true? - a devout Roman Catholic, that he secretly taped videos of himself having sex with his wife and passed the tapes on to a friend, and that to date his only apparent motive for betraying his country and colleagues was money.So far so enigmatic and the raw material of Hannsen's treachery could have made any number of different kinds of films. Director Billy Ray and his scriptwriters take that material and make a rather good film. (I was, by the way, encouraged to watch Breach when I saw that it also stars Laura Linney - I have, to date, not seen her in anything but good and interesting films.) Without grandstanding, fake excitement, car chases or gratuitous sex and violence Ray has made an engrossing film which doesn't strike a single wrong note and oozes suspense - even though we all know what's going to happen. And that in my book constitutes a class act. We are drawn into Ryan Phillippe's dilemma that he cannot tell his wife the truth about his work even though it is in danger of doing serious damage to his marriage. We are drawn into Cooper's weirdly paranoid world and even allowed a suggestion at what might have set him on the road to treachery. But these elements are admirably played - there is no fake drama at all.So sorry all you guys and gals who like a bit of 'action' in your 'spy' films, you ain't going to get it with Breach. But you will get and intelligent, quite gripping drama of a kind not often made.