Chris Cooper stars as Robert Hanssen, the wily spy who sold secrets to the Soviets and so became a modern day Benedict Arnold. Billy Ray’s factual, credible, even-tempered film keeps the suspense percolating at room temperature at all times. We are given just enough psychology to keep us alert (the tidbit about Hanssen’s aberrant sex life comes across as gossipy, his tortured Catholicism intriguing), but it brings us no closer to understanding the motives for his licentious behavior. The superbly scowling Cooper plays the unprepossessing Hanssen with gusto, and Ryan Phillippe and Laura Linney are both warmly believable as the bureaucrats who set out to trap him. This doesn’t provide much in the way of excitement, but as an exercise in people watching, it’s compulsively entertaining.
5 comments:
I liked the film as well and was semi-surprised to see it come out of Hollywood, complete with the marketing scheme that made it look like a cousin of the Bourne series.
(I accidentally pressed enter before I meant to...)
I rented it for my parents, thinking it would be an action film. I was very pleased with it, but they weren't. I'm still working on them, though.
I thought the level at which Ray involved the sexual elements of Hansen's life was lacking. I thought it should have either had more screen time (and garnered a R rating) or been completely absent. I thought that it took away from the tension just a little bit.
But that's just my opinion.
Chris Cooper is vastly underrated, wouldn't you say?
Good film, all in all.
I think Chris Cooper is one of our very finest.
The one thing that bugs me about the film (aside from its intolerably grey color scheme) is that it doesn't take religion very seriously. Or rather, it uses Hanssen's Catholocism as an instrument with which to beat him. It's like, "Ooh, he's a spy and a pervert and a Catholic and everything. What a creep."
Or maybe the guy is seriously looking for atonement for his sins. There's always that possibility.
Both Breach and 1408 are coming out this weekend for me! I remember liking Shattered Glass and Breach has obvious similarities, so I'm looking forward to it even though the story seems more typical than Billy Ray's debut.
In Shattered Glass, Hayden Christensen (sic!) brought a seat-of-the-pants adrenaline that I can't imagine being captured by experienced and calculating spooks.
I've heard almost nothing but negative reactions to Breach, but I remain intrigued with it. Think I'll give it a shot eventually.
...Favorite Cooper film that hardly anyone seems to have seen: Matewan.
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