base on the true story about christopher boyce ( hutton ) and daulton lee ( penn ) and and their involvement in sell american secret government document to the soviet during the 1970s . boyce work for the government and and his job be to guard these particular document and which ultimately disillusion him about his country affair and practice . he then enlist his drug dealer friend and daulton lee and who have become a wanted man and to be the courier for these sensitive document . lee infiltrate the russian embassy in mexico and and make contact with alex ( suchet ) and and they both begin to play the espionage game . lee interest be purely about money whilst boyce be act out of anger towards the system he be involve in . alex believe lee to be the inside man in the american government . thing start to become array when lee drug addiction and reckless behaviour in handle the courier position offset both alex and boyce . lee become more paranoid and and the initial espionage game become more deadly and consequential for everyone involve . this be a true spy thriller without the cheesy action . the character motif and analysis of real life subject be sympathetic but very well write and and the film cleverly interweave the real life event with underlying political theme about human predatory behaviour . where a big nation use their political power to control the small nation . well direct and and intense in part and especially where the protagonist become immensely in over their head in the spy game . timothy hutton and sean penn give amazingly rivet performance in a film that question authority and yet there be no simple answer to the political message or the complexity of that system . the plight of the protagonist become the underlying message within the falcon and the snowman and and make it a clever political thriller with a poignant element about society and human relationship and and the american system . great film . half out of .