Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story

Rating:
Summary: Good Guesswork on a Master Mind
Review: This is one of the best real-life story adapted movie I've seen. William Hurt is amazing in portraying the enigmatic Hanssen. His performance saved this film from its lack of depth and exciting plots beneath the obvious. Hanssen's motivation for his betrayals to everyone he loves is never elaborated, despite all the internal dialogues and rationalization. Though awkward at socialing and eerie in outlook, highly intelligent Hanssen made his moves with intention and calculation to understand struggling souls like himself under surreal yet intriguing circumstances. Studying his best friend, a strip dancer and intelligence officers from both camps, in depth and in person, must have given him great joy and revelation on himself, a modern-day Faust trying to figure out meanings of his own bewildering existence while finding a way to salvation. Writer Mailer and Director Schiller had obvious done their homework and interviewed key people related to Hanssen which gave certain degree of reality to the scrip. But I still feel somewhat disappointed about the fragmented profile they demonstrated via this movie. Maybe Norman Mailer is just getting old and therefore relies too much on his insights while ignoring the relevant details which would have enriched the story so much more.

Rating:
Summary: Where is the rest of the movie?
Review: William Hurt did an excellent job portraying the spy Robert Hanssen. Hanssen was a complex character. On the one hand, he was a church going family man who regularly went to confession, on the other, he was perverted. He would videotape sex with his wife (although she wasn't aware of it) and show it to his best friend. He came across as a loyal employee, yet he was selling our nation's top secrets to the KGB. The research for this film was great, but I was disappointed with the DVD. The original TV movie fit into a four hour time slot, this DVD only lasts two hours. Director Lawrence Schiller felt that all those extra scenes slowed down the story, but I feel that they gave the public a better understanding of what Hanssen was really like. While the DVD does contain some deleted scenes, it does not contain all of them. I hope they consider releasing the entire TV movie on DVD in the future.