Master Spy: Robert Hanssen Story
Here's a different kind of spy:  awkward, frosty, supremely intelligent, deeply religious. As brilliantly acted by a perfectly cast William Hurt, this is Robert Hanssen, a respected FBI man who sold information to the Soviets for 20 years. In Norman Mailer's incisive script for this TV movie, Hanssen turns to spying for his own neurotic reasons:  to out-earn his domineering father, to show up the FBI bosses who continually pass him over, and maybe to dispel the boredom of the arrogant. A kinky interest in voyeurism and a platonic friendship with a stripper are also part of the mix (which brings in nudity not part of the broadcast version). The stripper is played by the touching Hilit Pace, while Mary Louise Parker is fine as Hanssen's clueless wife. Production values are TV-utilitarian, but Mailer's keen psychological probing and Hurt's unwavering chilliness makeMaster Spyan absorbing experience.--Robert Horton