One of my favorite movie genres is the true story. I don’t know what it is exactly, but I have always liked watching movies about events that actually happened in real life. Maybe it has to do with the fact that it brings more realism to the story knowing that it (or something similar) actually happened in real life. Originally released back in 2007, Breach was a movie that I had never seen before. I thought the premise was intriguing though, and the movie received pretty high ratings when it was first released so I wanted to check it out. Breach starts off a little slow, but it is an entertaining look at the effort it takes to catch a double agent.
Breach tells the true story of one of the largest security breaches in U.S. intelligence history. The story takes place in 2001 as the FBI becomes suspicious of one of their own, Robert Hanssen. The FBI decides to put a new agent, Eric O’Neill, undercover as Robert’s assistant in order to keep an eye on his actions. Eric must match the wits of a veteran double agent in order to finally bring him to justice.
Breach is based off the true story of Robert Hanssen and the effort to bring him to justice for his past leaking of US intelligence to the Russia. I will admit that I didn’t know too much about the true story behind the movie before watching Breach as I was a teenager when the story originally broke back in 2001. After watching the movie though I was curious how accurate the film was as the true story genre is well known for stretching the facts in order to try and tell a more compelling story. Based on my limited research it seems like the main story seems to be pretty accurate to the real story. Some of the specifics of the case might not be entirely accurate as some elements of the story were probably never revealed to the public due to security concerns. There appears to have been a couple minor changes, but nothing major that changes the main story.
I will say that Breach is the type of movie that is not going to appeal to everyone. While the movie is about spies and the US intelligence services, it is not a particularly action packed movie. If you are looking for a movie with a lot of gun fights, car chases, or other action sequences; you won’t get it from Breach. Instead the movie is more of a crime drama/thriller focusing more on being a spy in the real world. This involves going through the process of getting enough evidence to bring down a double agent. This means that the movie does start off kind of slow until the investigation really kicks off. If you were only interested in Breach since you thought it would be an action packed spy thriller, you will likely be disappointed with the movie.
After its slow start, Breach does pick up quite a bit. It is never a highly exciting movie, but it does tell a compelling story. Much of the story is built around finding evidence about the target without being caught. The story is kind of predictable especially if you are familiar with the true story that it is based on. The story is compelling though as you want to see how it will end. In a lot of ways the movie is what you would expect from a story about double agents. The movie is really helped by the cast as the acting in the movie is quite good. Basically if the premise intrigues you, I think you will enjoy watching Breach.
As for the Blu-Ray itself, this appears to have been the second release of the movie on Blu-ray (2020 Universal, 2021 Mill Creek Entertainment). This review is based on the 2021 Mill Creek Entertainment release. For the most part the 2021 release seems to be pretty much the same as the 2020 release except that the special features have been removed. As for the video quality I would say that it is decent. It doesn’t feel like it was remastered and was instead digitally increased to high definition. Breach is not the type of movie that really benefits a lot off of high definition. Its not like the movie relies on a lot of action sequences or special effects that stand out in high definition. It obviously looks nicer in high definition, but it is not something that absolutely must be seen on Blu-ray.
Breach won’t be for everyone, but I thought it was an entertaining enough spy thriller. The movie seems to stick pretty closely to the true story of the investigation into the suspected double agent Robert Hanssen. The story starts a little slow as it doesn’t feature a lot of action sequences. Instead it is more grounded in real life. After the slow start though, Breach picks up quite a bit to tell a pretty compelling story about a younger agent trying to outwit the wily veteran agent. As for the Blu-ray release it is decent, but nothing special.
My recommendation for Breach comes down to your thoughts on the premise with the knowledge that the movie doesn’t contain a lot of action. If the movie doesn’t sound all that interesting to you or you were looking for a more action packed movie, Breach probably won’t be for you. Those that think the premise sounds interesting though and don’t mind a slower pace should enjoy Breach and consider picking it up.
Buy Breach online: Amazon
We would like to thank Mill Creek Entertainment for the review copy of Breach used for this review. Other than receiving the review copy we at Geeky Hobbies received no other compensation. Receiving the review copy had no impact on the content of this review or the final score.
