‘Black Bag’: Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender Are a Sizzling Duo in Soderbergh’s Seductive Spy Thriller

Alci Rengifo

Lazy spy thrillers turn to large action sequences to resolve everything, or when the plot runs out of gas. It is much more difficult to do something like Steven Soderbergh’s “Black Bag,” a cheeky enjoyment that engages principally through the shared charisma between Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender. It is the second film release in just a few months from the prolific Soderbergh and writer David Koepp. They have found a working rhythm in playing around with genres. The pair also knows how to polish classic ideas for their own use. Here the angle returns to espionage as a metaphor for marriage and the fragility of trust. 

Fassbender gives off Richard Burton vibes as George Woodhouse, a spy at Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre. He is known among colleagues for his clean cut ways, iron discipline and strict sense of honesty. In a plot more than fitting for our times, a cyber-worm named Severus has gone missing. George’s superiors suspect there may be a double agent at NCSC. Meacham (Gustaf Skarsgard) tasks George with finding the traitor, along with the shocking suspicion it may be George’s wife, fellow spy Kathryn St. Jean (Blanchett). To try and lure out the mole, the couple host a dinner with their co-workers. They are Colonel James Stokes (Regé-Jean Page), a young agent working under George, Dr. Zoe Vaughan (Naomie Harris), the in-house shrink and James’ lover, cynical agent Freddie Smalls (Tom Burke) and Clarissa (Marisa Abela), his girlfriend and a comms expert at NCSC.

Soderbergh and Koepp’s previous collaboration this year was “Presence,” a haunted house horror story told entirely from the POV of the ghost. There is that same playfulness in “Black Bag,” this time by turning a typically archaic plot about stolen cyber weapons and potential traitors into a smooth, pleasantly watchable marriage story. Other movies and TV shows have done it before, such as “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” but that was an action movie. Soderbergh is more intrigued by interactions and behavior patterns. He loves to frame Fassbender at dinner, seeming so poised with the thickest skin ever. Only a stain on his fine shirt causes him to need to change it. His banter with Blanchett is loving and sensual. They are a perfect match, like a couple made up of perfectionists or Ivy League professors. 

The dinner interrogation leads to the unfolding of this story as multiple narratives, also about relationships. Per this movie, a career based on double identities can easily lead to infidelity. Zoe as the shrink thinks she can assess what makes everyone tick, before a brutally honest session reveals just how shallow her fling with James truly was. Clarissa, the youngest of the group, is clearly getting bored with the cocky and older Freddie, who she knows is sleeping around. She can’t help but show some envy at the devotion between George and Kathryn, getting turned on when George needs her to manipulate a spy satellite signal to show how he is willing to do anything for his wife. While Fassbender and Blanchett are pristine, Marisa Abela is also memorable in this role, showing off some of the flirtatious edge from her role in HBO’s “Industry.” Every performance brings nice layers, turning this film into a semi-ensemble piece. 

Soderbergh and Koepp wink at classic spy thrillers with the settings, wardrobe, and hazy writing without ever letting the audience get too lost. There are connections between the stolen cyber-worm and British efforts to stop the Russian war in Ukraine. A great nod at the most famous spy franchise of all, James Bond, comes in the casting of Pierce Brosnan as NCSC chief Arthur Stieglitz. Like a 007 who finally matured and turned into a bureaucrat, Brosnan brings much fun as the cranky boss who knows more than he lets on to his team. The dialogue is like catnip for this actor when he has a verbal showdown with Blanchett at a London restaurant. As the world wonders what Amazon will do with Bond now that it owns the property, “Black Bag” is a refreshing reminder of how this genre thrives best on genuine sharpness.

It is typical for Soderbergh to direct like a one-man band. Once again he serves as his own cinematographer and editor. “Black Bag” looks elegant with a visual approach that feels classic and the editing never gets frantic. The real style is contained in Fassbender’s cool delivery, evoking some of his more subdued roles where the violence is kept in check, as in “The Killer” and “Prometheus.” We buy him as a professional married to an equal. Blanchett is simply his even more stylish, beguiling half. They need to trust each other at work as much as at home, because both things are the same. By the time the mole is uncovered and guns are placed on a dinner table, we are hooked by the atmosphere of everyone involved. Soderbergh still excels as a filmmaker who brings characters to life, no matter the kind of story he feels like telling. In this caper, the spies are more fun to watch than the puzzle.

“Black Bag” releases March 14 in theaters nationwide.