BREACH. Dir. Billy Ray. 2007

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Ryan Phillippe plays Eric, a young, bright, FBI employee whose IT skills and quick thinking get him a job spying on Robert Hanssen (jailed for life in 2001 for providing the KGB with military secrets for 15 years.) Ambitious and motivated, Eric takes it on, hoping for fast track promotion to agent.

Hanssen’s certainty that he is smarter than anyone else is what drives him, but Eric’s smart too, and this suspenseful, intelligent film keeps us guessing as to which one will outwit the other. Eric keeps his cool despite his prey becoming his predator when Hanssen (Chris Cooper) monitors him just as closely, turns up at his house, anticipates every move Eric makes, and is aware of every level of FBI surveillance. He’s a hard man to dupe.

Alongside their egos clashing, the story covers the moral dilemmas of both men. Hanssen is a devout Catholic who fantasizes about Catherine Zeta Jones and sells movies of himself having sex with his wife, while young Eric isn’t happy with the way the job is destabilizing his marriage.

The film’s message is stated twice: It’s what you do that counts, not why. It’s a thought provoking premise and does away with a whole raft of excuses. Hanssen was jailed, so obviously he was caught but, in being caught, his brilliance and effectiveness is made public. Like ‘Catch Me If You Can,’ it’s a thought provoking study of a good mind, unrecognized, becoming destructive.

Dialogue is spare and taut, cinematography is clean and sharp, and there are great performances throughout.

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