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RE: Your "quibbles" are...

Posted by jamesgarvin (A) on August 20, 2007 at 12:52:47

In Reply to: Your "quibbles" are... posted by afilado on August 20, 2007 at 11:31:42:

"Sorry to say it, but Cooper could not alone carry the movie to the box office."

Character actors generally do not carry anything to the box office - those are lead actors. Then again, lead actors generally do not carry cerebral, well written films to the box office - witness Clooney in "Solaris" and "Good Night, and Good Luck."

"And, magnetic is not a word I'd ever use to describe him."

Consider the role. He is playing a lifer in the F.B.I., not really a notable career. In other words, he is a company man, who lacks the desire, or "magnetism" to get climb up the food chain. He is a man who is able to get secrets and transfer them to his operatives without being detected for a long time. His lack of "magnetism" is that allows him to successfully steal secrets without detection. I would hope and expect the actor playing the character would play the role without magnetism. I think your next paragraph supplies the reason for Cooper's acting choices.

"The movie is so well done it's almost technical in it's storytelling. Not slick, just ultimately unengaging. It lacks sufficient soul, or maybe more aptly it is unable, paradoxically, to overcome the understated power of the lead performance on which the whole affair depends."

It was technical. Because Cooper's character was technical, and he operated within a techical existence. Even his family relationships seemed technical. Which, I think, explains the technical feel of the film. What nobody has discussed is the importance of religion in this man's technical life, as religion is anything but technical, to most people, and certainly not to him.

"My heart beats faster just thinking of "The Spy..." than at any time during my watching of Breach. If a film doesn't engage me on a visceral level, an emotional level, no matter how intelligent it is it falls short."

I think the film was made as a type of procedural. A dramatization as to what went down, and maybe why, and how the government closed the hands of justice. I am not sure where there is any room for "emotion", other than a desire to see the culprit executed. When I see "emotion" in such a film, I begin to wonder what facts are being fudged or concocted to generate the "emotion." Between the two, I'll take mine straight.

"Your comments about Phillipe and Linney are spot-on and, as I say, a part of the overall problem."

Phillipe: Consider that he is charged with finding the goods on a subject that is an expert in reading people, and guessing their ulterior motives. Sort of like an expert poker player. He must operate around Hanson daily, without telegraphing any cues as to what he is doing there. I thought Phillipe played the role well.

Linney: Not sure what else you wanted her to do. It is largely a thankless role. Her job is to simply bring Phillipe along, help him to understand that while he is misleading Hanson, he is doing so for the benefit of his country, even if it is not why he joined the F.B.I. She was asked to bring a food tray to the party, and some guests complain she did not bring steak. Or tofu, for some.

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