There is no reason to embellish the story of Richard Hanssen.
Oh, I guess if you’re writing a movie about the most damaging spy in US history, there are plenty of reasons. There’s more drama in feigned intimacy. In your boss taking you to a park at night and taking potshots at you with a weenie pistol while asking if he can trust you.
There’s enough ordinary drama in the story of Robert Hanssen without the embellishment.
Nevertheless, “Breach,” starring Chris Cooper as Hanssen, is a fine movie. Not necessarily accurate to the story, but a fine movie. As long as it’s marketed as fictionalized – the best they can admit is “based on a true story,” I’m fine with it. Though you have to wonder if they would have sacrificed much to stick to the whole truth. Because the whole truth is a lot more complicated than what’s show in the film.
Cooper is at his best in this film: Creepy, arrogant, self-assured. It doesn’t feel like he’s acting; it’s as if he is a spy for the Soviet Union trying his hardest to keep things together and believing, in his arrogance, that nobody in the FBI could know he’s a spy, since at one time the Bureau put him in charge of finding the spy.
Also stellar in this film: Laura Linney, as the agent in charge trying to find the baddie. Understated, hard-ass, firm.
Part Two: Live-Action Scooby Doo
I know we already have a live-action Scooby Doo movie. Two of them, in fact. But Scooby Doo is what comes to mind when I watched the first season of Psych.
And I mean that in a good way. Yes, it was pretty easy to pick out the villains in the stories. I mean, you only meet a few new characters in each episode, and they’re not going to trick you (at least not yet) by having the baddie be somebody they haven’t already shown you.
They kinda wink at that. They know they’re not telling complex stories. What we’re supposed to be enjoying is the chemistry between Shawn and Gus, and there’s plenty there to enjoy as you wait for them to finger the bad guy you already know.
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