NOTE: The embargo has lifted and the reviews are very strong. As you’ll see in my thoughts (below) we actually have a good studio movie hitting theaters next Friday — 86 on Metacritic and 94% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Steven Soderbergh’s “Black Bag” runs on charm, and with its leads being Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett, both playing British spies, it’s hard to complain about spending time with these two consummate actors. Fassbender is George, he finds out that there’s a mole in the spy agency, trying to snatch up a cyber worm known as Severus. There are five possible suspects, one of them happens to be George’s wife Kathryn.
George, an icy cool figure, decides to gather all the suspects around for a dinner party; there’s Colonel James Stokes (Rene-Jean Page), Dr. Zoe Vaughn (Naomie Harris), Freddie Smalls (Tom Burke), and his girlfriend, new recruit Clarissa ( a standout Marisa Abela). He spikes their chicken masala with a truth serum, and thus sparks fly.
That’s just the opening 10 minutes, and the barb-wired truths that spark up at the dinner party result in a feisty cat-and-mouse game between these five thespians. David Koepp’s script, filled with clues of potential betrayal, primarily focuses on George’s attempt to solve the mystery of the mole. In the mix, an agency leader, Arthur, played by Pierce Brosnan might be another suspect.
As usual, Soderbergh works fast and loose, he’s also editor and cinematographer, focusing on the wit and charisma of his two leads. Blanchett is a sharply devious treat, Fassbender, playing a cold figure that barely gets thrown off by anything, has a ball with Koepp’s intricate script. However, the biggest treat is in watching a married couple trying to confront the nature of their job and marriage.
The film is bookended by another dinner, and Soderbergh makes remarkable use of the limited space to reveal his final cards. The stakes are high, but the acerbic wit and bite of the dialogue is never sacrificed. In a way, “Black Bag” plays like a screwball spy film, one driven by dialogue rather than action.
I won’t lie in admitting that I expected more from Soderbergh’s stylish spy thriller. It can at times feel convoluted, too self-absorbed, to fully register as anything but a wise-cracking puzzle. With that said, despite the subject matter, it’s an admirably light, and entertaining affair that runs a brisk 93 minutes.
If you want clarity, you won’t find it in “Black Bag,” this is a film draining with characters whose job is to lie and deceive. It’s less exciting trying to guess who the mole is than it is to watch Fassbender and Blanchett attempt try to keep their marriage afloat — at what lengths would one go to protect the one they love? If you’re both spies, it’s too complicated to explain.