Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Written by: David Koepp
Run Time: 1 hour 34 minutes

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While the world impatiently waits for the announcement of the next James Bond – it’s already been four years since Daniel Craig’s swan song in No Time to Die (2021) – there’s been a distinct spy-shaped gap left in the cinematic market. And with Black Bag, Steven Soderbergh might just be the director to fill it. Complete with an impressive cast that – somewhat ironically – includes two once-favourite future Bonds, an ex-Miss Moneypenny and even an actual 007, it certainly has all the makings to be the next standout spy flick.

Instructed to find a suspected traitor within his intelligence organisation, respected spy George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) must surveil five different suspects to try and catch the rat. However, one of these five suspects just so happens to be his wife and fellow agent Kathryn St. Jean (Cate Blanchett). As more and more clues start pointing towards her, and with millions of lives at stake, George is forced to consider what’s more important to him: his job, or his marriage.

If you’re expecting exploding pens and ejector seats, Black Bag might not be for you. Instead, Soderbergh’s take on the spy genre offers a far more grounded portrayal of espionage, having more of an interest in the intriguing interpersonal relationships between his characters than any car chases or fist fights.

Similarly, screenwriter David Koepp adopts a straightforward approach to his storytelling, quickly setting up the six main characters in clear and direct fashion. Early in act one he has them all attend a delectably dramatic dinner party at George and Kathryn’s house. This astutely allows for both George to put his investigation into motion while also encouraging audiences to start making their own judgements too.

The guest list consists of agency psychiatrist Zoe (Naomie Harris) and her newly-promoted boyfriend James (Regé-Jean Page), with satellite imagery specialist Clarissa (Marisa Abela) and her partner, older agent Freddie (Tom Burke) in attendance too. Along with their hosts this varied group of co-workers makes for a fascinating collection of characters, that together comprise the culprits for the film’s tightly-packed secret-service whodunnit. Elsewhere, Pierce Brosnan rounds out the main ensemble, swapping pistols for paperwork as he stars on the other side of the mission briefing desk as senior agency boss Arthur Stieglitz.

Much like George’s meticulous methods, Black Bag unfolds with a quiet confidence, moving through each of its scenes with precision and pace. There’s hardly any dead air, yet the film retains the ability to relent and sit a little longer with certain scenes – the aforementioned dinner party, one especially tense satellite observation and a thrilling lie detector montage prove most memorable in this regard.

However, Soderbergh’s insistence to extract exactly what’s needed from these moments and nothing more, does eventually amount to a certain slightness in the overall finished product. Black Bag is almost too efficient for its own good. Of course this makes for an undeniably slick and rather swift spy outing, but when everything is this good it seems a shame not to savour it slightly more.

After all, Keopp’s piercing dialogue, and the way the cast deliver it is especially entertaining. To the surprise of absolutely no-one, Cate Blanchett is effortlessly commanding as Kathryn. A mysterious, yet assured woman who Blanchett keeps largely impenetrable, much to the benefit of the central conundrum. Her guard only slipping slightly in one frosty session with Zoe, where her and Naomie Harris engage in an increasingly heated exchange.

In turn, it’s in more of Zoe’s professional sessions where her own relationship with Regé-Jean Page’s James – giving his best Bond audition tape – comes under the microscope too. Whereas, Clarissa and Freddie’s dirty laundry is almost always aired publicly. Something that Marisa Abela takes full advantage of, more than holding her own aside Tom Burke and all her other more well-established co-stars.

It’s in the absence of the excessive action often found in spy thrillers that Soderbergh is able to highlight the more revealing, personal insights of these cold contract killers and cunning espionage operatives. However, the most intriguing sense of cloak-and-dagger is without a doubt to be found between George and Kathryn.

Fassbender and Blanchett have an enthralling chemistry that keeps their relationship at first enigmatic and later uncomplicated. As George, Fassbender is stiff and regimented, not dissimilar to his recent role in David Fincher’s The Killer (2023). Whereas Blanchett’s Kathryn is more at ease and almost seems to enjoy the lies and deceit of their duplicitous profession. It’s this curious opposites-attract dynamic that Black Bag chooses to carefully unfold, posing the killer question: is it possible for George to be truly married to both his job and his wife?

The answer? Concealed neatly beneath all of the stylish surveillance and international espionage of course. Because while the plot preoccupies audiences with treachery and artifice, Black Bag covertly completes its real mission: successfully embedding this spy thriller with its undercover romance. Playfully signed, from Soderbergh, with love.

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Star Rating: ★ ★ ★

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