On Feb. 18, 2001, the FBI arrested Robert Hanssen, a twenty-five-year agency veteran, for espionage.  Hanssen, who worked in the counterintelligence unit and first passed classified material to the Soviets in 1985, was finally exposed with the help of a young FBI employee, Eric O'Neill, who was assigned to watch him as his aide. 

 

Director Billy Ray and screenwriters Adam Mazer and William Rotko recount the story of the enigmatic Hanssen (Chris Cooper) by focusing on his cat-and-mouse relationship with O'Neill (Ryan Phillippe).  Hanssen, who believes that his success in eluding detection comes from his ability to read people, misjudges O'Neill badly and pays for it with his freedom.

 

Hanssen is enigmatic to the point of distraction.  A devout Catholic, he spies for the godless Communists.  A doting grandfather, he dabbles in internet porn.  A loving husband, he trysts with strippers.  The success of the movie owes much to Cooper's ability to so thoroughly and convincingly inhabit such a contradictory character. 

 

When he's brought onto the case, O'Neill is told that Hanssen is being investigated for sexual deviancy.  After observing the visible—as opposed to the carefully concealed—side of his boss, the young agent finds himself admiring Hanssen and asks to be taken off the case.  Hanssen, of course, hasn't survived as a mole for fifteen years by being transparent.  O'Neill's hard-charging supervisor Kate Burroughs (played convincingly by Laura Linney) finally relents and fills him in on Hanssen's treason. 

 

The heart of the film is the cat-and-mouse game between Hanssen and O'Neill.  Hanssen has survived by being observant and suspicious, and he's wary of O'Neill from the start.  Even as the two find some common ground, Hanssen seldom drops his guard.  For his part, O'Neill is inexperienced and seemingly over his head. 

 

There's a subplot regarding the strain O'Neill's career puts on his marriage.  FBI agents, we're solemnly informed, are on duty 24/7, and spouses are expected to grin and bear it.  O'Neill's young wife Juliana (Caroline Dhavernas) doesn't remember any of this being in her marriage vows.  This is apparently a real problem within the agency, but it adds little to the movie.  More intriguing, but largely ignored, is Agent Burroughs, who has devoted her life to the agency—no husband, no children, not even a cat.  Hanssen's treachery is seriously threatening her idealism. 

 

Director Ray has made an absorbing and provocative film that brilliantly captures the enigmatic Hanssen.  The question on everybody's mind is why?  The how is clear enough in retrospect.  Through bureaucratic inertia and institutional jealously, the FBI and the overall intelligence community failed to do their job. 

 

But, what motivated Hanssen to betray his country, if not his family and religion?  To his credit, Ray does not presume to know.  It's not clear that Hanssen knows for sure himself.  There's the Freudian: Hanssen's childhood wasn't the happiest.  His father even bribed the DMV officer who gave young Hanssen his driver's test to fail him.  It was a test of the sixteen-year-old's character. 

 

Adulthood wasn't much better.  There was a long series of career slights: lack of recognition, promotions lost to less talented colleagues, etc.  And, then there was the maddening incompetence of the FBI's counterintelligence operations.  Perhaps Hanssen was just trying to get the agency's attention. 

 

Cooper's triumph is his ability to show viewers Hanssen's tormented soul where these demons collided in some kind of perfect storm.  It's not pretty but it is fascinating and instructive—as much in what it doesn't tell us as in what it does. 

 

Cooper's presence dominates the film, but the rest of the cast is solid.  We especially liked Kathleen Quinlan as Hanssen's achingly dutiful wife and Linney as Agent Burroughs—both in relatively small roles. 

 

There's not a lot of action here.  It's primarily a character study.  But, there's enough tension to keep even action junkies riveted.  Military.com Rating: ***½

 

Military.com's Movie Rating Scale

* As entertaining as an Article 15 (Best to avoid if possible)

** Another weekend pass (O.K., but nothing special)

*** On a par with a promotion (Don't pass it up)

**** Redeployment (It doesn't get much better than this)