By Sandra Hall
BLACK BAG ★★★★
(M) 93 minutes
Steven Soderbergh is one of filmmaking’s consummate all-rounders. He skips from genre to genre, seemingly thrilled to be testing his talents on yet another toy.
Lately, he’s taken up with fellow adventurer David Koepp, who’s proved his adaptability as a writer with scripts for some of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters, starting with Jurassic Park in 1993 and going all the way to 2023 and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
Cate Blanchett (left) and Michael Fassbender face off in Steven Soderbergh’s new film Black Bag.Credit: Claudette Barius via AP
He and Soderbergh teamed up for the ghost story Presence, released last month. Now they’re back with Black Bag, a spy movie set in London. It’s set far from the world of Slow Horses, however. In contrast to Mick Herron’s dishevelled battlers exiled to the backblocks of MI5, this lot are operating in the agency’s upper reaches, and their grooming and tailoring are immaculate.
But George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender), the most senior of them, is in trouble. He’s launched an investigation into a leak about one of the agency’s most sensitive undertakings, and it’s come up with a list of suspects that includes his wife, Kathryn (Cate Blanchett), another agency high-flyer.
What to do? Debonair as ever, George, who can cook in addition to his other skills, decides to give a dinner party. Over three courses and some very good wine, he will mount an interrogation.
From left: Michael Fassbender, Tom Burke and Pierce Brosnan in Black Bag.Credit: Claudette Barius via AP
Not surprisingly in this company, the conversation turns out to be less about espionage than sexual relations. It soon becomes clear that George is very much in love with Kathryn, no matter what she may have been up to, while Freddie (Tom Burke), another agency veteran, is having an affair with Clarissa (Marisa Abela), who’s noticeably upper-class and very much younger. And finally, Zoe (Naomie Harris) is involved with James (Regé-Jean Page), despite her supposedly dispassionate role as the office psychologist.
Once the script does get to grips with the details of the cyber conspiracy at its centre, things become extremely complicated, but there’s no need to worry. The plot is merely the catalyst. What matters is the atmosphere of distrust that suddenly begins swirling around the personal and professional entanglements between this elite gang of spies. The verbal combat at the Woodhouses’ dinner table is only the prelude.
Koepp has a gift for the sardonic, which is hardly surprising given the fact he directed and co-wrote the Ricky Gervais comedy Ghost Town. And Soderbergh’s direction has a complementary briskness to it. Nothing is overdone or over-explained. It’s so terse that you have to work pretty hard to keep up.
Fassbender’s poker-faced George is almost too inscrutable in the first half, unbending so gradually that it’s a revelation when he finally shows his softer side. Blanchett’s Kathryn is a good match for him – a sexy ice queen with a formidable air of authority.
She’s one of the few who stands up to their boss, Stieglitz. Played by Pierce Brosnan in a buttoned-up, double-breasted suit, he displays a pompous disdain for every living thing, human or otherwise. After watching him enjoy lunch, I may never eat sashimi again.
It all verges on caricature, but so does Slow Horses. It’s aiming to show the corrosive effects of the spying life on the characters of those immersed in it, and it certainly succeeds. In love, as in war, almost everybody here is exploiting those they profess to care about. The only exceptions are Kathryn and George – despite the chilly facades they present to the world.
It’s been 13 years since Soderbergh announced his retirement from feature filmmaking. Fortunately, it was short-lived, and he’s since been as prolific as ever. Admittedly, he’s had mixed results, with quite a few misses. But that’s because he dares to take a chance.
Black Bag is released in cinemas on March 13.
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