Black Bag - Review

Spies are sexy. They wear sleek suits, stylish sunglasses and top-of-the-range watches. They are intriguing, alluring, they are professional liars after all. They may tell you one thing, but you are never fully sure whether they are telling the truth or not. There is a mystic and desire in deception. Sexual desire and flirtatious affection is the centre of Steven Soderbergh’s spy thriller Black Bag, a drama on infidelity and how far you are willing to go for the one you love, and what you value more: spouse or country.

All accompanied by the sleek, modern, clean City of London, which contrasts with Bond’s more traditional London aesthetic. Indeed Black Bag feels like Soderbergh’s take on a Bond film. It stars Pierce Brosnan as the M-like figure, whilst Michael Fassbender would have made a great Bond, and Regé-Jean Page should be in consideration when it comes to the next 007. But there is also something tangibly different. This is a film without action, but rather the thrill of deception in conversations and surveillance.

The film follows George (Michael Fassbender), who in the opening scene swerves through a London nightclub to meet a colleague, who informs him there is a mole in the agency, who is trying to pawn off a dangerous piece of malware called Severus, created by the British. The informant tells George there are 5 possible candidates, one of which is his wife Kathryn (Cate Blanchett). George and Kathryn invite them round for dinner, where George spikes the chaat masala to get his guests loose – whilst Kathryn is unaware she is also under surveillance. What follows is a week where George uses every trick in the book to find the mole.

Black Bag is a brilliant spy thriller, using all the key threads of deception, betrayal and lust as anchors for the film. The screenplay by David Koepp constantly reminding us about these ideas, telling us we are dealing with a traitor, a stranger, find the rat. This constant keeps the tension tort, whilst there are also deep layers of distrust. Black Bag, which the film is named after is a get-out-of-jail-free card, a code word for “I’m not allowed to disclose this information”.

Anything a character wants to hide they simply have to say the two words. This is an intriguing ploy as it is not just the character informing their colleague they don’t trust them, but if the colleague is keen enough a cue for them to surveil their colleague. Indeed George is someone who had dirt on everyone, even his wife. When asked, he assumes everyone would take that for granted, “I watch her, I assume she watches me”.

Fassbender delivers a compelling if understated performance. Meticulous and cold, having ratted out his father for infidelity previously – there is no reason why he wouldn’t do the same to his wife. Despite this, he reassures Kathryn he’d do anything for her, he would lie, he would kill. But those two things cannot be both true. Meanwhile, Kathryn is more easygoing, she admits she is willing to lie to George if she needs to – she seems like the kind who could portray her husband. The pair exude chemistry, it is a shock that they haven’t worked together more often.

Black Bag is a completely gripping espionage thriller. A swift 90 minutes that withholds enough information to keep you on the ropes. Although the score didn’t work for me, pretty much everything else did. A modern, sleek thriller which is everything a blockbuster should be. Intense, frenetic, gripping, erotic and thought-provoking.