Review by Jeremy Elwood.
In case you weren’t already worried enough about the world, global confrontations have a recurring tendency to come about due to the straining of personal relationships between powerful people. Throughout history, wars have started and ended for the same petty reasons most crimes are committed: jealousy, resentment, money and sex.
That interplay between the personal and political is at the heart of Stephen Soderbergh’s tight, tense and thoroughly satisfying Black Bag.
The basic plot is simple enough. The British Secret Intelligence Service have a problem. Someone has stolen a superweapon, is trying to sell it to Russia, and only one man can stop them before countless lives are lost. And it’s right there that the Bond similarities end.
The suspect list runs to five people; two couples and the wife of George Woodhouse, the master spy tasked with solving this twisting whodunnit. Woodhouse, played impeccably by Micheal Fassbender, is a solitary man with clear boundaries. He hates liars, rather a precarious position to take in a world where everyone one around him, by professional definition, is one. And he is dedicated to his country and his wife – but in which order?
Cate Blanchett’s imposingly languorous Kathryn St Jean is in every way his equal. Together they form the “perfect couple” within their murky trade, and when they look into each other’s eyes and swear they would kill for each other, you believe it.
It’s a modern spy tale where surveillance is done by satellite, the weapons are cyber and mentions of “the war” are referring to Ukraine. Yet its’ beauty lies in its’ throwback to classic thrillers. From the opening tracking shot with its nods to Goodfellas and Touch of Evil, to The Thin Man-Esque banter between the married couple, to a final reveal that Agatha Christie would be satisfied with, this is Soderbergh doing what he’s done so well, so often. Playing within a familiar genre but adding a splash of arthouse flair to make it his own.
By far, the clearest homage is to John Le Carre. As in the seminal Smiley novels (it is impossible to believe that it’s coincidence that the master interrogator here is also named George) the threat of geo-political catastrophe only provides a background to the interplay between the flawed players in the game.
Most of the uniformly excellent cast have done this kind of thing before, but with the recent re-surge in espionage thrillers coming out of the UK, it would be more surprising if they hadn’t. As an ensemble, they shine in the two pivotal dinner party scenes which bookend the film. Tom Burke (Mank) is the charmingly problematic Freddie Smalls, seated alongside the precocious and slightly unhinged Clarissa Dubose, played by Marisa Abela (Rogue Agent). Facing off against them, literally, are Rege-Jean Page (Bridgerton) as man-child Colonel James Stokes, and Naomie Harris as secret keeper to the secret service, psychiatrist Dr Zoe Vaughan. Harris played Eve Moneypenny in the two most recent 007 movies, and the Bond ties are further bolstered by Pierce Brosnan turning up as Arthur Stieglitz, a glimpse of what might happen if he turned in his licence to kill for a seat on the board.
But this is Fassbender and Blanchett’s movie, masterfully directed and edited by Soderbergh from a sharp script by his recent regular collaborator David Koepp. The contrast of the two leads is in their connection to the world around them. Kathyrn holds her clandestine meetings in public, whilst Woodhouse is more comfortable alone, fishing, both metaphorically and literally. When they are together, their intense bond comes with a clear understanding that certain things are strictly “black bag” – too secret even for these two to share.
This film is a welcome reminder that the lines between suspense and sensuality are blurry at best, and that a conversation can be more revealing than a polygraph. It’s a terrific film that comfortably takes its’ place amongst the classics of the genre that it is so lovingly paying tribute to.
Black Bag is in cinemas now.
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