BLACK BAG Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Stars: Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett, Naomie Harris, Tom Burke, Rege-Jean Page, Marisa Abela, Pierce Brosnan.
Black Bag is a stylish, classy, sophisticated and intelligent spy thriller from prolific director Steven Soderbergh. And even though it features two actors from the Bond Universe in Pierce Brosnan and Naomie Harris, this drama is more akin to the literary fiction of John le Carre and Len Deighton. Rather than car chases and shootouts that are the staple of the globetrotting adventures of a Bond or Jason Bourne, Black Bag digs deeply into the nitty gritty of the intelligence community, a world of secrets and deception and paranoia, and it also looks at the complex personalities of the spies that inhabit this world.
The script comes from David Koepp, a frequent collaborator who recently wrote Soderbergh’s experimental paranormal activity-like Presence, and it is a lean, economical affair that gives a fresh spin to a tired genre. The film runs for a brisk 93 minutes, and there is little flab on the sparse script. Black Bag is largely dialogue driven and the few moments of violence that occur are sudden, unexpected and jarring. The title itself refers to a covert attempt to uncover secrets: to give it some more context, the infamous break-in at the Watergate Hotel that ultimately led to the downfall of President Nixon is referred to as a “black bag” operation.
George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) is an agent with the National Cyber Security Centre of British Intelligence. He is informed that there is a serious leak somewhere in the department, and it involves a cyberweapon known as Severus, a digital worm that could cause catastrophe on a global scale. George is tasked with uncovering the identity of the traitor. George is the strait-laced and honest type who once spied upon his own father and ruined his life.
George is devoted to his wife Katherine St Jean (Cate Blanchett), a fellow agent, and the pair are intensely protective of each other. They hold a dinner party at their lavish terrace apartment, to which the main suspects are invited. Among them is Dr Vaughan (Harris), an MI6 therapist who knows most of their secrets; ambitious field agent James Stokes (Rege-Jean Page, from tv series Bridgerton, etc); cynical hacker Freddie Smalls (Tom Burke, from Furiosa, etc); and satellite imagery analyst Clarissa Dubois (Marisa Abela, recently seen as Amy Winehouse in the biopic Back In Black), who is sleeping with Freddie, a romantic entanglement frowned upon by the organisation.
George cooks a meal for the party, but he laces it a little something extra – a truth serum. He initiates a party game which is designed to strip away many of their defenses and reveal hidden layers of their personalities. The tension between the guests is palpable. But this is just the opening gambit in his search to uncover the truth. Serverus itself is merely the Macguffin of the film.
The performances of the ensemble cast are all solid. With his glasses, Fassbender is deliberately meant to mimic George Smiley (played by Alec Guinness in the miniseries Smiley’s World, and by Gary Olman as the hero of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, etc) and even Michael Caine’s Harry Plamer, the more cynical spy at the centre of films including 1965’s The Ipcress File, etc. He brings an icy demeanour, laconic wit and a hint of menace to his performance. Blanchett brings strength to her role and a chilly aloof surface, as well as an ambiguity and vulnerability. Brosnan has a small but important role as Arthur Stieglitz, the avuncular but slightly menacing head of the agency.
Soderbergh himself has directed the film as well as also editing it and shooting it under his regular pseudonym of Peter Andrews. The film opens with a long tracking shot that follows George through the backstreets of London and into a darkly lit nightclub where he holds a clandestine meeting with an informant (who soon after ends up dead.)
The film looks good and looks and feels like a spy thriller from the 60s. This is a handsomely mounted production, with a glossy surface. There is some rich production design from Philip Messina that creates the offices of the NCSC with its open design and lots of glass that gives it a bright look in contrast to the darker nature of their business. Messina has also created the sprawling and lavish, warmly decorated and inviting terrace apartment that George and Katherine share. The characters are all dressed in dapper style thanks to Ellen Mirojnick’s costumes.
While Black Bag may not deliver that fast-paced action that many fans of the spy thriller genre prefer this is an intelligent, well written and articulate spy movie that will appeal to fans of Le Carre and his ilk.
★★★☆
