Black Bag Review – The Best Soderbergh Is Stylish Soderbergh

Ken Jones, OnScreen Blog Chief Film Critic

There have been a few times when Steven Soderbergh has released two films in the same year, most notably in 2000 with Erin Brockovich and Traffic, both of which netted him a Best Director Oscar nomination (he won for Traffic). Already this year, he has released Presence, an experimental haunted house story from the ghost's perspective, and Black Bag, a more conventional cat-and-mouse spy thriller with a stacked cast.

Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett play married agents caught up in an espionage plot. Fassbender’s George is tasked with rooting out a mole in the British MI6 or some sort of intelligence agency. Blanchett’s Kathryn is one of the potential suspects. The others are coworkers Col. James Stokes (Regé-Jean Page), Dr. Zoe Vaughan (Naomie Harris), Freddie Smalls (Tom Burke), and Clarissa Dubose (Marisa Abela), all with intertwined connections and relationships. George, known as the master of interrogation, has one week to find out who leaked Severus, a top-secret software that could kill millions in the wrong hands.

Naturally, the inquisitor invites all of the suspects over for dinner, which sets the stage for the mind games and sharp dialogue that is to come. Secrets are revealed, buttons are pushed, and relationships are tested and strained. 

Fassbender’s George might draw comparisons to Hannibal Lecter regarding his heart rate seemingly never rising for much of the movie. I hope the name George is a tribute to Le Carre’s George Smiley, a similarly methodical intelligence agent of several classic spy novels that also netted Gary Oldman an Oscar nom in 2011’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. George is constantly observing. When he is not cooking exquisite and meticulously crafted meals, he spends time fly fishing to think and clear his head. Of course, this hobby is a metaphor for him setting the bait and lure to reel in the traitor in his midst.

Of course, Blanchett is equal to the task for anything asked of her here, either from Soderbergh as a director, Koepp as a scriptwriter, or Fassbender as a co-lead. There are questions immediately about where her loyalties lie, and Blanchett plays Kathyrn right down the middle, keeping the audience guessing about her until her motives are finally laid bare. Her tightrope performance is heightened by George's reputation at the agency, having famously surveilled and reported on his own father.

Harris, Page, Burke, and Abela, along with Pierce Brosnan as the head of the agency, round out a stellar supporting cast. As the in-house psychiatrist, in addition to the group scenes at the dinner table, Harris gets a few one-on-one scenes with most of the other cast; her session with Blanchett is a standout. Marisa Abela is the least known to me, but she had maybe the juiciest supporting role, showing two sides to her character.

All of these suspects that George is setting his lure for feel fully formed. A pub scene where they all meet before dinner with George and Kathryn, as well as the little details that get shared during dinner, are small but effective ways to establish them as fully fleshed-out characters.

This film is much more dialogue-and-plot-heavy than action-heavy; the few moments of violence are outbursts built on the ratcheting tension of the button-pushing happening in conversations. Spy thrillers are usually a puzzle, and this script from David Koepp is no exception.

Some may also try to invite the viewer to solve the puzzle before all of the pieces are revealed, but I think the best of the genre are the ones that you can give yourself over to as a viewer, embrace the reality that not all of the facts are going to be given to you until the end, and just enjoy the ride getting there. Thankfully, the ride getting there is effortlessly sleek and stylish in a manner that Soderbergh and only a few other directors can pull off. 

While the investigation into who the traitor is in the agency is the propulsive engine of the story, what is really at the heart of the story is the marriage of George and Kathryn. The question lingers and is asked openly to George about how two intelligence agents can make a marriage work when so much of their lives are devoted to deception and lying is second nature to everyone in their field of work (the title refers to an agency term that means you can’t talk about your work). The answer that is delivered is not earth-shattering, but it is mildly refreshing. 

Soderbergh is both prolific and experimental, comfortable working in the indie scene or the studio system. Strong performances by a strong cast, a smart script, and a sleek runtime of 94 minutes make Black Bag a sleek spy thriller. Soderbergh is a versatile director, but given the choice, this is the vein of his filmmaking I enjoy the most.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars