When you’re a child one of the earliest communication skills you develop is the instinct to lie. One of the first moral lessons we are taught is not to lie. As we age, the lies get grander and the deceptions more terrible, generally the more a person lies, the more extreme behaviour they can justify. Well, what does that say about the people in power whose job it is to lie for a living?
This is where intelligence agent George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) comes in. Working for the British secret service alongside his brilliant wife Kathryn (Cate Blanchett), George is a spy catcher. As someone who roots out leaks and turncoats within the agency, his skills are unparalleled. It’s difficult maintaining a romantic relationship with someone in the spy business. Anything which needs to remain secret, even between agents, is dubbed “Black Bag”, an easy out for infidelity. But when you can lie about and deny everything, how can you tell the truth about anything?
George‘s skills will be put to the test when a devastating secret project leaks internally. Given five names of highly skilled co-workers, he sets his sights on these very British suspects. Womaniser Freddy (Tom Burke), his OPSEC girlfriend Clarissa (Marisa Abela), the newly promoted James (Regé-Jean Page) and his girlfriend the agency therapist Zoe (Naomie Harris). George hates liars and will have no hesitation in executing the guilty party. Unless it turns out to be the 5th name on George‘s list, his own wife Kathryn.
Recently I reviewed director Stephen Soderbergh‘s low budget haunted house movie, Presence. I praised the filmmaker for his versatility and his passion for always trying something new. Almost on cue, we now see the release of Black Bag, Soderbergh’s follow up and in his fashion, it couldn’t stand more apart from his previous work. Here, he shows us his ‘A game’ with a slick, sexy spy thriller which taps into many of the Soderbergh-isms which have made his films such a hit with audiences.
Story wise, this is a killer. A spy versus spy story which throws you deep into the world of modern-day espionage and covert intelligence. Intense and nail-biting but without resorting to all out mindless action. The comparisons between Black Bag and the 2005 film Mr & Mrs Smith are easy to make, both deal with suspicions and paranoia within a marriage of two spies, although presented in very different ways.
Black Bag is much more of a cerebral story akin to a John le Carré novel. More ‘George Smiley’ than ‘James Bond’ and hell, Woodhouse even kind of resembles a fusion of the two Cold War heroes! Infidelity is central to Black Bag with its secret agents of varying levels of clearance all being united by one thing: they’re not to be trusted. Everyone seems out for themselves and cheating on their spouses is just an occupational hazard.
To give an impression of the ensemble we’re dealing with here, and with Pierce Brosnan in a supporting role, this movie features: ‘James Bond’ himself, ‘Miss Moneypenny’ (Harris), an actor who Quentin Tarantino had playing his Bond surrogate in his 2009 film Inglourious Basterds (Fassbender), and two actors who could be in the running to play Bond in the future (Burke and Page). This cast are a who’s who of British talent and play off each other wonderfully, with each character thinking that they’re the smartest person in the room at any moment.
But this is really Fassbender and Blanchett‘s film and the two make a fantastic couple on screen. Both refined and professional, but with a chemistry which is simmering in every scene that they share. Individually, George and Kathryn are already a force to be reckoned with but together they just might be the deadliest duet in Britain.
I’m surprised that Stephen Soderbergh hasn’t dipped his toes into the spy thriller genre more often, he seems a perfect fit for it. His previous effort Haywire (2011) was far too action heavy and didn’t truly capitalise on the director’s strengths. However, Black Bag is written by David Koepp who wrote Mission: Impossible (1996). While I was underwhelmed with his work on Presence, here Koepp and Soderbergh‘s reunion bares tastier fruits.
The whodunit mystery is allowed to draw us into this cloak-and-dagger world, which is completely alien to normal folk, yet presented as mundane to its characters. Overhead satellites, political backstabbing and toxic office romances all blend together in a witty intelligent screenplay. Although Soderbergh‘s editing (sorry, “Mary Ann Bernard’s editing”, wink wink) comes dripping with style, it’s not too the over-the-top which is something that soured me from previous works like Ocean’s Twelve. Black Bag is really a smartly made, entertaining and exhilarating take on the spy genre, and there aren’t even any exploding pens!
At a breezy 93 minutes, Black Bag is an efficiency paced and intelligent crowd pleaser and highly recommended spy thriller. I absolutely adore this film.