Breach: B+

I could spend this entire review detailing to you the various ins-and-outs of Billy Ray's linear jolt of spy thriller entertainment but there isn't much to say. Coming off of his well-recieved Shattered Glass, writer-director Ray has turned down the showy scimatics of a traditional popcorn fest for the slowburn of a lightning-rod drama or a searing thriller and succeeds at evoking niether of those in full measure. His tersely "dramatic" close-ups and obligatory "explosions" from the various agents at the FBI (played alternately with varying levels of candor by Laura Linney, Ryan Phillipe, and Dennis Haysbert) are about as innovative as a coffee-maker...or fire. It must be said that at the very least he gives the movie pacing. Yet it is the villian of the movie, Robert Hanssen (Chris Cooper), who provides the needed atmosphere of disquieting nihilism, unchained id, and sociopathic intelligence that sends the film flying upwards from by-the-numbers to edge-of-your-seat.

Chris Cooper used to be an actor I thought I knew. His turn in American Beauty was predictable (and predictably caustic) but nowhere in his resume is there a hint that he could do something like what he does here. Hanssen, an American intelligence officer who is being tailed by Eric O'Neill (Ryan Phillipe) for being a "sexual deviant" (read: Soviet abetter), is given shades of a pathetic repressed beauracrat plus the snivelling snap of a Will & Grace-esque Jack. And on occasion he's so unpredictable that his every breath seems wracked with barely-held mania. Cross that with his hard line conservative politics and what results is something like Archie Bunker gone nuts; A man possessed of a vitriolic disposition so laughable in its quirks that by the end you haven't even realized he has truly terrified you.

Perhaps though it isn't so astounding for Chris Cooper to do something like this (surely to be one of the finest performances all year). One could even theorize he has been building to this his entire career and his one man hurricane force - his face paunchy and his eyes drowning in sadness, smarts, and self-righteousness - is the reward.

Without the energy of Cooper the film goes lax since the other actors seem almost to be in another, more rote film. Laura Linney fills perfectly those roles for which there really is no character. She stands there, grimaces cynically, and occasionally shows off a witty side. Ryan Phillipe on the other end exudes a singularly naieve, impatient power and almost manages to stand up against Agent Hanssen. Almost. I wish that Billy Ray had managed to create a more fully developed film from the supporting cast but then the question inevitably arises: without the director's narrow-minded focus on Hanssen, would Breach be such a breathless thrill every time Cooper tears through the screen? Maybe but then Chris Cooper would have less spotlight to shine in.