FBI upstart Eric O'Neill enters into a power game with his boss, Robert Hanssen, an agent who was put on trial for selling secrets to the Soviet Union.FBI upstart Eric O'Neill enters into a power game with his boss, Robert Hanssen, an agent who was put on trial for selling secrets to the Soviet Union.FBI upstart Eric O'Neill enters into a power game with his boss, Robert Hanssen, an agent who was put on trial for selling secrets to the Soviet Union.
- Awards
- 1 win & 3 nominations
- Agent Loper
- (as Courtenay Stevens)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIn the hallway, we constantly see a poster with names and pictures of spies that have been caught, as well as short narratives of what their crimes were and how much time they're serving. These posters really exist in secure government facilities, and prominently displayed on all of them, since the events of this movie took place, is a photo of Robert Hanssen.
- GoofsEric and Robert enter a church and Eric makes the sign of the cross incorrectly, touching his shoulders before his sternum. Since much of the plot involves Eric's and Robert's Catholicism, it would have been an error that would have made Robert suspicious.
- Quotes
Eric O'Neill: What if he's smarter than I am?
Kate Burroughs: A couple of years ago, the bureau put together a task force. Lots of assets had been disappearing. So this task force was formed to find the mole who was giving them up. Our best analysts poring over data for years looking for the guy, and they could never quite find him. Guess who was put in charge of the task force? He was smarter than all of us. Actually, I can live with that part. It's the idea that my entire career has been a waste of time, that's the part I hate. Everything I've done since I got to this office, everything we've all been paid to do, he was undoing it. We all coulda just stayed home.
- ConnectionsFeatured in HBO First Look: Breach (2007)
- SoundtracksNear You
Written by Francis Craig, Kermit Goell
Performed by The Andrews Sisters
Courtesy of Geffen Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises
The big arc here is the uncovering of a spy within the FBI, based on a true story. And that's interesting. But the movie works because of the mental and emotional sparring between the two leads.
First is the spy, Robert Hanssen, played brilliantly by Chris Cooper. He pulls off the brilliance and eccentricity you might get with this kind of person, and all without stagy exaggeration. This is a spy and a spy story worthy of John Le Carre.
Next to him is the young FBI worker, not yet an agent, Eric O'Neill, played by Ryan Phillippe. He's excellent enough to support Cooper, for sure, though he (maybe by necessity) is a more bland type. His struggle with why he (of all the FBI people possible) has been given the huge job of bringing this other man down is key to his depth.
Both men have wives, and both women are good—Hanssen's wife is played by Kathleen Quinlan and though we don't see her much, she's really good. And generally the cast supports this chilling, dry, steady intrigue.
In other ways, the movie is a bit conventional—professionally made, you might say, but without stylistic distinction. It's no breakthrough masterpiece. But what it tries to do telling this story it does with spare, direct force. This is no adventure tale —there is no real action. But that's good. It's compelling and interesting.
Since this is "history" or "based on truth" it's worth saying that only the large facts are followed. All the fun movie stuff—the meeting of the wives, the pistol shooting in two scenes, the sex stuff, and so on—are all invented. Apparently life is either too dull or too dangerous to really put on film.
But that's okay. It's a strong story. And Cooper steals the day.
- secondtake
- Jan 2, 2014
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See the full listDetails
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- Hanssen
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $33,231,264
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $10,504,990
- Feb 18, 2007
- Gross worldwide
- $40,953,935
- Runtime1 hour 50 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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