When his intelligence agent wife Kathryn (Cate Blanchett) is listed as a potential leak for a new cyber weapon, analyst George (Michael Fassbender) finds his personal and professional lives bleeding into each other.
As he pursues his investigation, he finds himself untangling a web of intrigue that might break more than his marriage...
I run hot/cold with Soderbergh - this one is on my wavelength.
A fun combination of spy and sex games, Black Bag is the most fun I have had with a Soderbergh movie since Kimi.
There is a confidence and a focus to the movie, and the way it disperses information, that I appreciate.
It is particularly impressive for creating a sense of different forces at work without feeling overburdened with plot.
Soderbergh and screenwriter David Koepp smartly keep the focus on the character dynamics. The film recognises that there is no such thing a separation between the personal and the professional, and that extends to the clandestine work of intelligence.
Three couples shift in configuration as our leads attempt to work it if they are the overseer or the focus of a conspiracy. The line between personal and professional becomes invisible - the interpersonal games as each couple is forced to reveal the true nature of their respective relationships.
Sex and gender colour the characters’ interactions as they play (or don’t) on each other’s peccadillos.
The film fits the framework of a locked room mystery with a final scene where all our main characters are brought together for the final unravelling of the caper.
Fassbender plays George as a cool professional - although his facade is not nearly as perfect as Blanchett's.
I cannot remember who said it, but a critic referred to Blanchett as at her best when she is playing a character who is themselves involved in some kind of performance. She plays Kathryn with a knowing edge - an opacity that the film plays into to unexpected effect.
With his glasses, sense and precision and - with the way all his hobbies interweave with his work - it is hard not to think of the character as a stand-in for the director.
He is as vulnerable as anyone - he is just more honest, and self-aware enough, to recognise it. He and his wife have found ways to integrate both aspects of their lives - their greatest strength is their trust.
It might just be because of the genre, but the male cast resembles an in-joke: a collection of past and potential Bonds - you have Fassbender, Regé-Jean Page, and Brosnan.
The former Bond has little screen time but is worth a mention.
Soderbergh has a gift for bringing out unique qualities in actors who are not known for them.
In Brosnan’s case, it is a volcanic sense of rage. There is an underpinning of weakness and insecurity to his version of M - a sense that the highway heads might not be the coolest.
As the newest face amongst the cast, Marisa Abela stood out. The youngest member of the trifecta of couples, she almost becomes the everyman, the entry point for the viewer - until her own weirdness adds more unpredictability to the group.
As always, frequent Soderbergh collaborator David Holmes perfectly captures the tone of the piece with a sly, spare electronic score.
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