Black Bag

I have to laugh at the trailer for 2025's BLACK BAG.  So marketed.  I know, that's what trailers are supposed to do.  Get you to watch.  Better yet, get you to park your ass in a theater seat.  Actually pay to see the damned thing.  Featured prominently in the trailer is an exploding jeep.  Falsely portraying this spy thriller as action packed.  Maybe a junior James Bond outing.  You note that David Koepp, who penned the first MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, wrote it.  Then you also note that Stephen Soderbergh directed.  Uh oh.  

Yes, BLACK BAG is not what many spy thriller enthusiasts expected.  Maybe even fans of John Le Carre novels were bored.  Such a talky movie.  And not always spy stuff.  What Soderbergh unsurprisingly really made was a relationship drama.  Another probing psych session.  This one seems inspired more by Mike Nichols films like WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOLFF and CARNAL KNOWLEDGE than GOLDFINGER.  Or even TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY.

Michael Fassbender is George Woodhouse, a counterintelligence officer in London.  He and his wife Kathryn (Cate Blanchett) work for the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) under Arthur Stieglitz (Pierce Brosnan).  It seems someone in their ranks has leaked a software program called "Severus", its name quite emblematic of the film's themes.  Who is the traitor? Is it the same individual who bumped off their immediate supervisor Philip Meachum (Gustaf Skarsgard)?

George and Kathryn have a rock solid marriage based on trust and transparency.  But how does that reckon with their line of work, which is based on deception?

The couple invite their colleagues over for dinner one night.  An unlikeable bunch.  James Stokes (Rege-Jean Page), an arrogant fellow counterintelligence officer and military colonel. Freddie Smalls (Tom Burke), a pompous case officer.  Marisa Abela (Clarissa DuBose), a headstrong and flirtatious signals intelligence and satellite imagery specialist.  Dr. Zoe Vaughan (Naomie Harris), staff shrink.  Involved with each other in various configurations.  Perhaps in this setting someone will let their guard down.  Reveal something.  They certainly do - brutal honesty about their relationships.  A highly uncomfortable scene, well played by all.   Certain to baffle and turn off viewers expecting cloak and dagger intrigue.

That comes later.  In spurts, anyway.  A few intermittent bits of suspense.  Is Kathryn the culprit? What will George, who verbalizes his hate for duplicity (in the personal/romantic arena at least) do if this is the case? Will he kill for her if he has to?

In the end, BLACK BAG seems more like a tract for honesty and monogamy than a cynical intelligence tale, though it is that, too.  Soderbergh sets his film in immaculate, enviably designed homes and offices.  Everything is very sleek.  Maybe antiseptic.  Some of the dialogue is a bit self aware.  But always a pleasure to hear.  This is a film about adults, for adults.  Probably why it bombed at the box office.