REVIEW: “Black Bag” – Steven Soderbergh’s Spy Thriller Is a Cat-and-Mouse Marriage

by Jacob Jones

If there’s one thing Steven Soderbergh knows how to do, it’s put in the work. The visionary director has already cranked out one film this year with Presence, and is releasing his second this weekend with Black Bag, a British spy thriller which sees Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett’s marriage tested as Kathryn (Blanchett) is among a group of agents suspected of leaking classified MI6 intel to a foreign government. The test for George (Fassbender) is one of loyalty – will it be to country or to spouse? And if it does turn out that Kathryn is guilty of treason, will he be able to do what it takes to rectify the situation, or will he be too late to do anything about it?
 
To a certain extent, Soderbergh’s filmography to this point has been all about what the audience is expected to bring to it and what he is expected to unveil to them over the course of each story: a workmanlike director for a working public. The catch is that on occasion he can get in his own way, and in more formal settings such as the one in which Black Bag finds itself, it can be a bit wearisome for him to get out of the way. Mercifully, Soderbergh’s plot doesn’t overstay its welcome, as the film clocks in at only an hour and thirty-three minutes, but getting to its end does require jumping through a few hoops without quite being able to see the ground beneath. It’s not so much a matter of format or styling; Presence is the experimental release this time around, whereas this film is significantly more straightforward. It’s simply that the film plays into its own nature too much for the audience to buy in when it wants them to, unless they’ve already decided to before the Focus Features logo shows up. The script, which is penned by David Koepp, is naturally secretive with certain details, but could be considered so secretive as to be overly complicated in a way that thinks it’s serving the story, when it’s only made more confusing by refusing to reveal key information to the audience that they would need to know in order to follow the story properly.
 
Luckily, Soderbergh’s more straightforward films usually come gift wrapped with a game ensemble of character actors and some of the world’s finest performers from sea to shining sea, Black Bag being no different as every famous British supporting actor from Regé-Jean Page to Marisa Abela to Naomie Harris, Tom Burke, and even Pierce Brosnan show up to play their part in some of the most immaculate costuming a spy thriller has had outside of the Bond franchise (thank you, Ellen Mirojnick). To the degree that any of them can clarify what’s going on in the admittedly vague script, they do so with a stylish aplomb, none more so than Blanchett – who unfortunately is less central to driving the story than the marketing would have one believe – and Fassbender, the clear lead of the film by the time the ball gets rolling. It’s their relationship as a married couple that offers the film its sleekness, its sex appeal, and yet so much time is spent with other characters and other relationships away from the two of them that it seems the script is more interested in the idea of their monogamous loyalty than in the characters themselves. There’s fun to be had with that course of action, to be sure, particularly in the exploration of how infidelity infects relationships built on careers made entirely of secrets and lies, but it does leave some room for error with the film’s adherence to a plot that’s simultaneously too unfocused to the audience and narratively complex to its characters.
 
The saving grace of every Soderbergh film akin to this one is the third act reveal, the info-dump that reveals which characters have known what’s been going on the whole time and why they know it; to its credit, Black Bag does pay off in a largely satisfying way, but one can’t help but imagine what that reveal might have been like if the audience were shown certain pieces of the puzzle being solved beforehand instead of just being told about them all at the same moment. Truthfully, there’s only one or two scenes that reveal information critical to the plot’s changing over the course of the film, but neither gets the audience closer to the truth along with the characters; the third act reveal has to catch viewers up itself, and by that time one begins to wonder if anyone was supposed to know where this was all meant to be going or get clued in by any earlier information.
 
All that said, there is some satisfaction to be had in watching this ensemble throw their weight around on what amounts to a Sunday matinee type of project, and it’s far from outright boring despite the presence of a few scenes that could easily be sent to the cutting room floor; in that sense, it’s more of a showcase for each actor’s greater range of skill, allowing the audience to watch these famous people do what they do best: look great while delivering vague dialogue in a medium close-up shot. With that alone, there’s enough to recommend it as a positive moviegoing experience – including some rather sleek editing choices and Michael Fassbender in some truly well-fitting black turtlenecks which indicate someone clearly watched X-Men: First Class recently and finally answered the question "why isn't he wearing those all the time?” – but not quite enough to hail it as one of the best movies of the year to date. And if one is looking for an access point to understanding Soderbergh as a filmmaker, this isn’t likely to be the starting point I’d choose. Still, for this early in the year, one could do significantly worse.
 
I’m giving “Black Bag” a 6.8/10
 
- The Friendly Film Fan