David R. Walker

Black Bag

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Cast: Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett, Tom Burke, Marisa Abela, Rege-Jean Page, Naomie Harris, Gustaf Skarsgaard, Pierce Brosnan

Running Time: 1 hour 33 minutes

Film Rating: 7 out of 10

Contagion and Logan Lucky director Steven Soderbergh is back with a new uber cool spy thriller, slick and dark but unfortunately not very sexy.

Soderbergh’s latest film Black Bag assembles an ensemble cast including Oscar winner Cate Blanchett (The Aviator, Blue Jasmine), Oscar nominee Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave, Steve Jobs) alongside Tom Burke (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga), Marisa Abela (Back to Black), Naomie Harris (Spectre, No Time to Die, Moonlight) Rene-Jean Page and Pierce Brosnan in a film that reads more like a play than a cinematic event.

Naturally Fassbender and Blanchett play the coolest hippest London couple on the planet as elegant spies George Woodhouse and Kathryn St Jean who suspect that their fellow employees of stealing a destructive cyber file called Severus from a secretive intelligence agency known as the National Cyber Security Centre.

The fellow spies are invited for a dinner party at their swish London pad, whereby all the jealousies and treachery emerge as each guest does their best to camouflage their deception. It’s an elegant dinner with traitors in which George Woodhouse, brilliantly played by Fassbender is keen on catching out one of his guests.

The guests include Freddie Smalls played by Tom Burke who could be having an affair with another lady besides his volatile girlfriend Clarissa, played with all the sharp tongued energy portrayed in the hit TV show Industry by Marisa Abela.

Then there is the dashingly handsome Colonel James Stokes played by Rege-Jean Page who is having a sexual relationship with the company psychologist Dr Zoe Vaughan wonderfully played by Naomie Harris.

So three potential couples, a destructive cyber file stolen by the Russians and a mysterious trip to Zurich make up the mysterious thriller Black Bag which is more like a contemporary version of Luigi Pirandello’s play Six Characters in Search of an Author.

Black Bag is well acted but unfortunately the film is too dark and sombre, with a surprising denouement.

The most sophisticated part of the film is the complex marriage between the two main characters both superbly played by Blanchett and Fassbender. The next best scene features a lie detector.  

Black Bag does not feature much action and while each actor do their best with a confusing and obscure script by David Koepp who doesn’t clearly identify who the hero and villain are. But maybe that’s the point.

If audiences are looking for a conventional action film, Black Bag is not it. This film will find it’s audience much like the dinner hosts find out who the traitor is. Pierce Brosnan is excellent in the small part he has.

Black Bag is obscure, fascinating and interesting but it is not a riveting film. This rather strange mystery thriller gets a film rating of 7 out of 10 and will have a unique appeal.

Black Bag is recommended viewing for those that enjoy unconventional spy thrillers with an elegant twist.

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