Breach

**** - This heavily dramatized telling of the story of Robert Hansson – one of recent American history’s most notorious traitors – is highly entertaining, most likely because so many liberties were taken with the events surrounding the actual case. The two main characters in this – Hansson, played by Chris Cooper and Eric O’Neill, played by Ryan Philippe – actually had a fairly mundane course of events in their lives, as opposed to the thrilling, dramatic series of happenings in the film. While that may annoy political history purists I actually found that it greatly enhanced my enjoyment of this movie. Although this may tacitly endorse the James Bond theory of intelligence and espionage (when in reality spy stuff tends to be far less intriguing than it is portrayed on film) it is also quite effective in conveying a great deal of humanity and personality to what could easily become very dull. The acting is surprisingly solid, the plot is extremely interesting and the ending – while somewhat rote and formulaic – is highly gratifying. There is nothing here that the experienced espionage/thriller fan has not seen or read at least a few times in the past, there is something to be said for this film’s earnestness and satisfying plot elements. Falling as it does somewhere between Bond and reality, this may not be authentic but it is definitely worth watching.