BLACK BAG – Review by Nadine Whitney
David Koepp and Steven Soderbergh step into the world of British Intelligence with the spy thriller-romantic drama Black Bag. Starring Michael Fassbender as the cerebral George Woodhouse and Cate Blanchett as his glamourous and capable wife, Kathryn St. Jean: Black Bag is a winning combination of style and game playing reminiscent of John le Carré.
George and Kathryn both work in different departments of the British secret service. The impeccable and fastidious “human lie detector,” George is given a list of potential moles in the agency by Philip Meacham (Gustav Skarsgård). A deadly asset codenamed Severus has been stolen and if deployed will have an immense human toll. George has a week to find out who is responsible and stop the asset being used. The list consists of five people: fast-tracked agent Col. James Stokes (Regé-Jean Page), agency psychiatrist Dr. Zoe Vaughan (Naomie Harris), young tech genius Clarissa Dubose (Marisa Abela), hard-drinking stalwart Freddie Smalls (Tom Burke), and Kathryn. Meacham asks if George will be able to turn in his wife – an answer he avoids giving by directing Meacham’s attention elsewhere.
George and Kathryn have a remarkably strong marriage for people who have to hide much of their lives from each other. They mention the term ‘Black bag’ (the cloaked part of their activities that must remain impenetrable even to each other) and all questions cease. George trusts Kathryn enough to let her know details of his mission, including why he has invited the listed four to dinner and that he will be assisting their free-flowing conversation with some slight drugging. Resentments are already stirring before George suggests they play a dinner game which reveals some key weaknesses. Essentially, the table is populated by sociopaths (George and Kathryn arguably included) whose careers in intelligence have allowed them each to compartmentalise, and at times encourage, their less savoury proclivities.
There are the requisite red herrings in David Koepp’s lean and clever script that take the audience and George through some uncomfortable personal twists. Clarissa while being ‘blackmailed’ by George asks how he and Kathryn can remain married when all of their jobs involve being practiced liars: where the nature of being a spy means that the better one is at cheating and deceit the better they do the work. George answers that some things are best swept under the carpet and not dealt with, and other things mean you go all in to uncover the truth. As a man who loathes lying, his “flagrant monogamy” with the agency’s chief field agent must have involved some “black bagging” to keep them together.
Everyone in the cast is well aware of the kind of slick thriller they’re in. From Tom Burke’s “old chum” drunken womanising louche Freddie to Pierce Brosnan’s old school operations chief Arthur Stieglitz (who isn’t fond of either Kathryn or George). However, Black Bag is very much Blanchett and Fassbender’s film with the games the couple play invigorated by both actors leaning into their respective strengths – Blanchett’s impeccable cool and Fassbender’s icy inscrutability.
Soderbergh once again acts as his own editor and cinematographer creating a glorious homage to “Cool Britannia” and a tribute to the muted but slightly naughty spy stories of the past. The film is firmly character driven over action, but the characters are all brilliantly realised and deliciously devious (or deviant).
The puzzles are plenty in Black Bag and the world of these fundamentally untrustworthy people in charge of a shadow milieu that goes beyond conventional politics and morals is a blast to inhabit. Black Bag proves Soderbergh has a lot of juice left in his genre game and it invites the audience to play with him. Go to the party.
