“When you can lie about everything, when you can deny everything, how do you tell the truth about anything?”
That is essentially the theme of Black Bag. When intelligence agent Kathryn Woodhouse is suspected of betraying the nation, her husband — also a legendary agent — faces the ultimate test of whether to be loyal to his marriage or his country. With a plot like that, you are most definitely going to need some top-shelf actors to convey the nuance and tension of a married couple that can’t fully trust one another. Enter Cate Blanchett and Miachel Fassbender on the heels of his espionage series The Agency. Toss in Steven Soderbergh as the director, and you get yourself a party. Or at least you should; however, the pacing has to be just right. Naturally, a suspense movie such as this needs to build suspense. However, if I’m being perfectly honest, this slow burn burned just a little too long. Outside that little detail, the film hit all its marks. The film was aided in this endeavor by a cast of consummate professionals such as Pierce Brosnan, Rege-Jean Page, Naomi Harris, Tom Burke, and Marisa Abela of Industry fame.
“If she’s in trouble, even of her own making, I will do everything in my power to extricate her. No matter what that means. You understand”?
To the film’s credit, it doesn’t force us to languish in the “is she or isn’t she” plot. They let us off the hook by the film’s midpoint and undertake a far more interesting storyline in my opinion. This subplot ups the ante for the main characters and takes the film into the arena of the characters needing to play chess rather than checkers. This made for a far more compelling story and twist. We’ve already seen the husband-investigating-the-wife dynamic time over time. Allied and the inciting incident for Child 44 were two good examples of this. So I was more than pleased that this film deviated from that trend in favor of uncharted territory.
Don’t get me wrong; the initial investigation did make for a couple good moments of tension between the married couple, but deviating kept the plot from becoming stale. The direction felt more authentic and made me feel like we were getting a glimpse behind the curtain of marriage in the intelligence field. This was undoubtedly due to scriptwriter David Koepp consulting with real-life spies, assets, agents, and operatives in order to write this spy movie. These conversations help to inspire the film’s name as well as my chosen opening quote, as Koepp stated he learned more than he ever expected about the people. For George (Michael Fassbender) and Kathryn (Cate Blanchett), the confidential information they can’t share goes into what they call their ‘black bag’.”
To convey this idea, I don’t think Soderbergh could have chosen two better people than Blanchett and Fassbender. Both aren’t strangers to this genre. With Fassbender, playing a spy or an assassin is borderline typecast. In fact, he does it so well, I wouldn’t be surprised if acting was just his spy cover. Despite the potential typecasting, Soderbergh says he chose Fassbender to play the keenly observant cyber-security interrogator George Woodhouse because he “…knew he wouldn’t be afraid to play the interiority of George. He burrowed in deep while creating a calm surface that masks a lot of turbulence. Michael can imply a great deal without being flashy.” Blanchett reportedly agreed to star this picture without even reading the script. According to her, the fact that it was written by Koepp and directed by Soderbergh was all she needed to know.
As it turns out, the film was even more of a family affair than I thought, as actress Alicia Vikander, Fassbender’s wife, made a playlist that was used in the film. She was given a ”special thanks” billing for this in the closing credits as “DJ Vicarious,” a nod to her production company called “Vikarious”.
Not to harp on our leads too much, as there is a plethora of talent in this film, the most notable one more me being one that I wasn’t familiar with prior to this outing. However, it is my understanding that she makes her presence known in her HBO show, which wrapped up in 2024. Abela’s Clarisa could have easily been a throwaway character, but Abela’s portrayal is very nuanced, keeping her from being dismissed as disposable. Clarissa presents herself as strong and fierce, but she’s quite sensitive, potentially too sensitive for the harshness of the world of espionage. She presents an interesting lens for the audience, as she is clearly not hardened to the deceit and betrayal that the other characters see as just another day at the office. Despite this, it seems very enticing to her, until the brutality of it becomes shocking. Additionally, it was a pleasant surprise to see Tom Burke, who has been popping up more and more on the silver screen in recent years. As a huge fan of Strike television series, in which he plays the titular character, I am thoroughly happy to see him getting this recognition, as long as it doesn’t affect me getting the next season of the series.
As I said, my only issue was that the pacing was a little slow, but other than that, Black Bag gave me my espionage fix and more. The cast delivers, and the film’s twist made for quality entertainment, though I did accurately assess who was pulling the strings. That aside, the film provide a realistic interpretation of the everyday world of espionage and what I would guess it would be like to be married to someone who lived in that world.
