In terms of sexy dynamic titles ‘Black Bag’ must surely be some way down the bottom of the list yet still more appealing than, ‘With Love, Megan’. It’s the latest star filled film from director Steven Soderbergh and written by A-list screenwriter David Koepp and is the second consecutive film the pair have worked on after their ghost film, ‘Presence’ only a couple of months ago.
Black Bag is a very different matter being a labyrinthine spy story starring Michael Fassbender as George Woodhouse married to Kathryn (Cate Blanchett) and both work for the Secret Intelligence Services and their big boss is Arthur Stieglitz (Pierce Brosnan). But as good as they all are its George who is really, really good. A master at the polygraph he’s is tasked with uncovering the person who’s handed the Russian’s a hi-tech security device that could see thousands dead within a week which is how long George has to find the mole and one of the suspects could be his own wife. So he hosts a dinner party and invite four other suspects: the flighty Clarissa (Marisa Abela), the company psychologist Zoe (Naomie Harris), fellow colleague James (Regé-Jean Page) and Clarissa’s co-worker and philandering partner Freddie (Tom Burke). It’s George who instigates a game where they each make a promise on behalf of the person on their right and is one of two dinner scenes that are entertaining in their intrigue and discovery.
This is not a spy story of Bond like stunts. The spies here are all about their office work albeit hi-tech with national security at risk and it’s all about the subterfuge. Just who is lying? And there is of course the polygraph test that George submits them to which along with the dinner table scenes is immense fun. Fassbender role is low key, calmly watching them all never raising his voice and has all the appearance of a hybrid of two of his previous characters – David in ‘Prometheus’ and the assassin in David Fincher’s excellent, ‘The Killer’. It’s twists and turns with a reveal akin to that of an Agatha Christie whodunit is decent enough in a script that plays like an exercise in mystery that writer David Koepp wanted to have a go at (and with a back catalogue that includes Spider man , Jurassic Park and Mission Impossible you can’t blame him for wanting to flex his writing muscles. For Soderbergh it’s another lesson in a low cost digitally shot film that affords a high calibre cast but Black Bag is ultimately another slight film from an A-list director who has given us Out of Sight, Traffic, Ocean’s Eleven, and Behind the Candelabra and it would be good to see him now return to something with a bit more substance.
related feature : Soderbergh’s ‘Presence’ reviewed here
related feature : Matt Charman, writer of Netflix spy series, ‘Treason’ talks Charlie Cox & the making of the show
Here’s the Black Bag review…….
