Breach is a startlingly terrifying character study of Russian spy Robert Hanssen. The genius behind this movie is the subtlety with which his hidden layers are revealed; it isn't until the end of the film that you realize what kind of a monster this man is. And wow, the final shot is ridiculously powerful--an incredible ending to an incredible movie.
Chris Cooper's acting was spectacular, on par with his performance in American Beauty. Laura Linney was also fantastic, aided by an excellent script that had witty dialogue at times and powerful emotions at others. The directing and editing were also good, surprisingly so. The rather hackneyed and trite montage where they reveal Hanssen's betrayals was pulled off with ease and had an astoundingly powerful effect on me. It was as if I were in Eric O'Neill's place, learning of all of this for the first time and being shocked into submission by the flood of information of someone I used to respect.
Ryan Phillippe's acting was not great, but not bad either. A better choice might have been Hayden Christensen. The cinematography and music did nothing more than merely get the job done--they didn't stand out in any way. Also, there might be some differences of expectations about this movie. One thing that might turn people off to this movie is that the reasons for Hanssen's espionage are never really investigated in depth, although the movie never promises or suggests that it will do such a thing. There wasn't much in the way of action. In fact, the movie was quite chatty (but I love good dialogue). In the end though, none of these negatives really bother me at all--this is a great movie and highly recommended.IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0401997/