A careful handling

Breach, a film based on the true story of the most serious national security leak in US history, fails to deliver the intrigue needed in a thriller, while comedy Two Days In Paris is handled skilfully by the director. By Gavin Burke

Espionage movies that don't include car chases, fight scenes and gunplay tend to be moody, downbeat talkies (re The Good Shepherd) and Breach has more in common with De Niro's sophomore outing than, say, The Bourne franchise or No Way Out.

Based on a true story of the most serious national security leak in U.S history, Breach (12A) sees Ryan Phillipe's ambitious but naïve computer expert Eric ‘O Neill climb the internal ladder of the FBI. Because of his catholic upbringing, O'Neill is selected by top brass Kate Burroughs (Laura Linney) to spy on former Russian counter intelligence agent Robert Hanssen (Chris Cooper), a religious, old fashioned man suspected of sexual deviancy. As O'Neill keeps a close eye on Hanssen he grows to respect the man and suspects that the sexual deviancy angle was just a ploy by the bureau to cover up Hanssen's real crime – selling secrets to the government's enemies.  

Director Billy Ray (Shattered Glass) hopes that the slow-paced storytelling will pass for tension and intrigue, but unfortunately there's more tension in The Care Bears Movie. It's a joyless, uptight affair with straight-as-a-die, starched shirt performances that hinder any sympathy for the characters taking root. Linney and Dennis Haysbert – playing special agent Dan Plesac, the man overseeing the operation – are miscast and don't have a lot to do, while Phillippe, although competent, delivers his performance without breaking a sweat. Cooper on the other hand is watchable and at times magnetic, but he's never allowed to break out of his one-note character.

It's characters and performances that grab you in Two Days In Paris. Adam Goldberg (probably best known as Chandler's freaky roommate in Friends) plays American Jack, in Paris for the weekend with French girlfriend Marion (Julie Delpy). Jack is insecure and jealous, but even the most confident man on the planet would second-guess himself when the couple constantly bump into Marion's ex-boyfriends, of which there are many. Throw her eccentric family into the mix and the short holiday turns into a nightmare.
Written and directed by Julie Delpy, Two Days In Paris is one of the funniest films released this year. The ad-lib, free-flowing approach to the dialogue, which Delpy first flirted with in her screenplay for Richard Linlater's Before Sunrise, needs great actors at the top of their game to pull it off and Goldberg and Delpy soundly deliver. Delpy allows Goldberg to steal the limelight as the jealous guy doing everything in his power not to be jealous but whose insecurity is challenged on every street corner. Delpy either understands how men think or has been in a situation like this before, because everything feels real and there isn't a ridiculous moment throughout. In the hands of a less-competent writer/director, Two Days In Paris could have been a dreadful misadventure with obvious jokes, but Delpy constantly goes for unusual but realistic scenarios.

Breach **
Two Days In Paris ****