Until more time passes and more details become declassified, we’ll just have to take the government’s word on Robert Hanssen being the most damaging enemy agent in American history. After watching Breach it’s hard to believe such a claim because it begins several months before he was arrested for making a drop to his Russian contact—the only time you see him doing anything illegal. The rest of the time his egregious behavior is implied by his disturbing actions or the accusations from the agent assigned to catch him. My personal guess is that the director wanted the audience to empathize with FBI operative Eric O’Neill during his stressful time working under Hanssen: the shock, fear, doubt, discomfort and marital strains. Too bad it didn’t work as a movie. Maybe it would for TV yet I doubt it. The complete story of Robert Hanssen would encompass his membership in Opus Dei, his “thing” for actress Zeta-Jones, his pornographic posts on message boards, his creepy nature, etc. as well as his betrayal would be better served through a book (I’m still looking for the most accurate one too).
Chris Cooper’s performance as Hanssen is still pretty decent from what little I’ve read about the real traitor. Ever since his appearance in American Beauty, Cooper is the master of the world-weary, tired veteran who is trying to just make it to the finish line of life. Yet he also captured the essence of the boss everyone despises—he yells at his employees and rivals, he belittles people in public (O’Neill could only address him as boss or sir), he doesn’t respect personal space and he doesn’t mind his own damned business when it comes to religion. It’s more subtle than Kevin Spacey’s turn in Swimming with Sharks so it’s more credible. Ryan Philippe on the other hand is rather generic as O’Neill. I’m not sure if it’s mediocre acting or the role wasn’t written well. Either way, I wasn’t very convinced of his drive to make the rank of agent with this possible fast-track assignment or why he decided it was time to quit the FBI after Hanssen was arrested. Philippe just seems to sleepwalk his way through this. The only other actors of notice are Gary Cole, Laura Linney and Dennis Haysbert playing other FBI Agents. Cole probably just seems funny as Hanssen’s bureaucratic rival Garces because he tends to wear suspenders like Lumbergh.
Despite this being an uninteresting and middling film, it is still a strong candidate for the History Channel’s infrequent show History Versus Hollywood due to a couple blaring inaccuracies I noticed immediately. Maybe I’ll do a comparison once I find the right book and Breach starts to make the rounds on DVD. The part with O’Neill downloading the contents of Hanssen’s Palm Pilot did happen, it was a critical point in building the case against him. The ending with O’Neill seeing Hanssen as he was taken away for questioning never happened because his interrogators wouldn’t allow it. I think the film is also too generous about the FBI’s failure to discover Hanssen’s activities in the beginning. For example, his brother-in-law, a fellow agent, suspected him as early as 1990 of espionage due to the excessive amounts of cash in Hanssen’s house. Maybe the FBI finally got the message when the KGB’s archives were opened up and his fingerprints, recorded voice and file were discovered. But I’m not sure this was before or after his arrest, again, I’ll defer to a more solid book.