I don’t remember ever seeing a spy film where I didn’t care “whodunnit”! Yet, in the new Black Bag, the dialogue is everything and second to that is the process of finding who done it. Nor does it matter how many foreign locales a hero visits, for here London, Zurich, and the sound stages are the only locations, and thank you, all we need for a first-rate thriller with accomplished, well-dressed spies trying to figure out among six, who is the traitor.
Heading the cast of operatives are husband and wife spies, George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) and Kathryn St. Jean (Cate Blanchett). Is she a counter-spy, traitor? George has been charged with finding out if she or one of the others could be the traitor. It becomes obvious that director Steven Soderbergh and writer David Koepp care more about the challenge to a marriage and the dialogue than world travel or the actual counter spy at the center of the plot.
The cinematography is creative, with a long opening shot that follows George to meet a boss in a camera tracking reminiscent of the casino sequence in Goodfellows. At other times multiple closeups serve to place the aud at the same table as the spies. It’s all intimate story telling with no gorgeous travelogue distractions such as in Bourne, Bond, or beyond.
Equally seductive are the private husband-wife moments, underplayed in deference to their star power. While they don’t give away if she’s the traitor, they do reveal the chemistry between the two stars and the characters’ abiding love for each other.
Their intimacy is trumped by Soderbergh’s delight in digital tongue-in-cheek, sharpened by his Oceans’ experiences and his own light-hearted love of spying with memory of love, sex, and videotapes, notwithstanding the old-school McGuffin of a nuclear malware called Severus carried in an old-fashioned thumb drive!
Fasbender’s droll delivery along with his Land Rover are just the retro ticket, including a suspicious movie ticket that challenges one of the most uxorious spies in film history. If not deep, Black Bag has secrets its title suggests, not to be told, serving up Spring in its many enigmatic delights.
Black Bag
Director: Steven Soderbergh (Traffic)
Screenplay: David Koepp (Jurassic Park)
Cast: Cate Blanchett (Tar), Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs)
Rating: R
Length: 1h 33m
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts NPR’s It’s Movie Time and Cinema Classics as well as podcasts Back Talk and Double Take (recently listed by Feedspot as two of the ten best NPR Movie Podcasts) out of WCBE 90.5 FM, Columbus, Ohio. Contact him at JohnDeSando52@gmail.com