Breach.BREACH Directed by Billy Ray (Universal Pictures, 2007) Most thrillers today rely on comic book villains to generate excitement, frightening audiences with drooling drooling the discharge of saliva from the mouth. A normal feature in some breeds of dogs such as St. Bernard, Newfoundland and English bulldog, presumably because of their loose, pendulous lips. psychopaths or chilling cannibals. But director Billy Ray's gritty tale of real-life spy and traitor Robert Philip Hanssen introduces us to a menacing presence that seems to embody political theorist Hannah Arendt's "banality of evil The Banality of Evil is a phrase coined in 1963 by Hannah Arendt in her work Eichmann in Jerusalem. It describes the thesis that the great evils in history generally, and the Holocaust in particular, were not executed by fanatics or sociopaths but rather by ordinary people ," offering a buttoned-down vision of villainy Villainy See also Evil, Wickedness. Vindictiveness (See VENGEANCE.) Violence (See BRUTALITY, CRUELTY.) d’Acunha, Teresa portrait of devilish Spanish servant and kidnapper. [Br. Lit. in the form of the mild-mannered guy next door. As middle-aged family man, zealous parishioner, and hardworking FBI agent Hanssen, Chris Cooper turns in a meticulous and riveting performance, offering just enough hints of the venom seething seethe intr.v. seethed, seeth·ing, seethes 1. To churn and foam as if boiling. 2. a. To be in a state of turmoil or ferment: beneath the surface of this frustrated mid-level bureaucrat to let us believe he might have sold $1.4 million of state secrets to the Soviet Union and delivered dozens of agents to their executioners. When the FBI finally becomes aware of Hans serfs monstrous betrayal, his superiors send raw recruit Eric O'Neill (Ryan Phillippe) to spy on the spymaster spy·mas·ter n. One who directs clandestine intelligence activities. Noun 1. spymaster - someone who directs clandestine intelligence activities master - directs the work of others , instructing the young agent to watch for signs of sexual misconduct sexual misconduct Professional ethics Any behavior that violates a health professional's ethics through sexual contact of physician and his/her Pt. See Professional boundaries. , not treason, in his new boss. The ensuing game of cat and mouse between these two mismatched opponents provides most of the film's excitement, but it is O'Neill's journey into a world of deception and betrayal that provides the gritty edge of this drama. Expecting to use his wiles wile n. 1. A stratagem or trick intended to deceive or ensnare. 2. A disarming or seductive manner, device, or procedure: the wiles of a skilled negotiator. 3. Trickery; cunning. against criminals and enemies of the state, the fledgling agent finds himself commanded to lie to his boss at the bureau (a boss who invites O'Neill into his home and church) and to his wife, only to discover that the people who set him on this hunt have lied as well. Breach is a tale of deception and its costs, of the myriad ways in which lying--even for a good cause--leaves its mark on us and spills over into other parts of our lives. And it is a story about the ordinary face of evil, about the ways villainy shows up in the dusty little cubicles of our lives. |
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