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Review of Breach (Mychael Danna)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you have the patience for a highly effective but understated suspense thriller that compensates for its rather simplistic instrumentation with a strong narrative arc.

Avoid it... if only ten minutes of Mychael Danna's melodramatic gravity at the climax of the score is not worth his otherwise conservative approach to this character study.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Breach: (Mychael Danna) Can an espionage film be truly gripping if the outcome is already known at its start? Critics hailed Billy Ray's 2007 docudrama Breach for doing just that, riveting audiences despite telling the mostly non-fictional tale of an FBI agent caught supplying Russians with secret information in modern times. The case of Robert Hanssen fascinated the nation in 2001, when the agent was arrested and eventually sentenced to life in prison for selling American secrets for $1.4 million, after which the government documented the breach as "the worst intelligence disaster in United States history." For the movie, Hanssen's assistant is used as the source of narrative drama, though many of the more sensationalistic depictions of their interaction (and characterizations about Hanssen) were exaggerated or outright fabricated to help sell the film. That assistant was assigned by the agency to keep tabs on Hanssen, and although the two men gain some trust and affection for one another, the younger, aspiring man does complete his duty and provide his superiors with the information and time they need to bring Hanssen down. Respected but neglected, Breach didn't fare spectacularly at the box office, and its equally competent score by veteran Mychael Danna passed by without much notice as well. The composer had just come off of The Nativity Story and Little Miss Sunshine, further proving his diverse capabilities with a true talent for instrumental complexity. Ray retained Danna for Breach because of their collaboration on a replacement score for Shattered Glass, and that previous work, along with Danna's Capote, would inform the general direction of Breach. If you seek to hear a continuation of the composer's interesting and often exotic instrumental tones, then this score isn't the place to search, because while Danna does spice up the soundscape with a few notable accents, he treats Breach with intimate character drama in mind. His ensemble consists of an orchestra heavy on strings, augmented by single woodwind, horn, and harp players. The backbone of the score, however, is the piano, the reliable mainstay of suburban security and familial relations. Danna, as usual, though, doesn't stop there, utilizing synthetic keyboarding and what sounds like a processed glockenspiel as rhythmic devices that lend color to the otherwise safely nondescript tone of the score.

Nothing Danna accomplishes in Breach will be remembered as being remarkable compared to his other career achievements, but what is noteworthy here is his ability to execute his tightly woven ideas for this assignment with near perfection. What little there is to this sparse score (both in length and depth) is very well arranged. Two general thematic devices are at war in Breach, and Danna's manipulation of these ideas is worth exploring the score on album. The government is afforded a brooding minor-key progression one would expect to hear in relation to its covert activities, though despite this unoriginal tactic, the motif grows from ominous bass string hints to full blooded, nearly action-oriented moments of grandeur in the "Double or Nothing," "The Last Drop," and "I Matter Plenty." The gravity that Danna instills upon the motif as it reaches its climax generates genuinely engaging suspense despite the known outcome, an impressive feat of dramatic writing. The theme is slowed for ultra-melodramatic power in a display of quiet, resolute power in "The Arrest," leaving no doubt about the government's victory. On the other side of the score, and also culminating in a powerful statement in "The Arrest," is the theme for Hanssen himself, the pretty, major-key piano melody heard earlier in the score during "Morning Mass" and other moments meant to humanize the flawed character. The theme's progressions mutate to match the ominous tones of the government's material but, in a highly effective move, dissolve back to their lonely and distinctly human form at the end of "The Arrest" and "The Why Doesn't Mean a Thing," actually supplying an environment of sadness to the final words shared between the two leads. Outside of the thematic development, Danna supplies mostly ambient drama and suspense, the synthetic elements crucial to keeping the pace but not really impressing by themselves. The mix is very well handled, no single instrument other than the piano dominating a cue. Tasteful French horn backing and occasional woodwind solos (especially in the latter half of the score) are welcome but not spectacular. The almost complete lack of percussion is an interesting choice, with rhythms sustained by harp, piano, glockenspiel, or other lighter elements. Overall, there is ten to fifteen minutes of music in the latter half of Breach that will entertain you with the weight of its drama, but the piano material, which very well developed in the narrative arc, is rather mundane. The first half the score is likewise cold in demeanor, and some listeners will not have patience for the time it takes to start generating some heat.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 35:28

• 1. Dangerous World (4:37) • 2. An Agent Named Robert Hanssen (2:03) • 3. Gun Culture (1:25) • 4. Morning Mass (2:10) • 5. Dear Friends (2:16) • 6. Get on the Boat (2:48) • 7. A Full Day (1:59) • 8. Double or Nothing (2:55) • 9. The Last Drop (6:23) • 10. I Matter Plenty (3:54) • 11. The Arrest (3:16) • 12. The Why Doesn't Mean a Thing (1:42)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert includes a list of performers but no extra information about the score or film.

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