Steven Soderbergh’s spy romance Black Bag lit up theater screens back in March. The film deservedly won strong reviews but failed to bring audiences to the box office. Frankly, it’s their loss, because Black Bag is a refreshingly original take on the spy genre featuring a pairing of great actors as husband-and-wife British spooks whose marital trust issues might compromise national security.
British intelligence officer George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) finds himself in an impossible situation: he’s investigating a suspected traitor among his colleagues, and his wife Kathryn (Cate Blanchett) is his prime suspect. A cat-and-mouse chase unfolds between high-tech surveillance centers, quiet boathouses and dinner parties at the couple’s London townhouse, where every guest is also a target for George’s legendary spycraft.
The phrase “black bag” refers to classified information the Woodhouses can’t share even with each other. When careers are built on secrets, they provide perfect cover for infidelity — or treason. Ultimately, Black Bag is a marriage story about secrets, trust and loyalty that transcends personal and national crises.
The talented supporting cast — Regé-Jean Page, Naomie Harris, Tom Burke and Pierce Brosnan — all play agents harboring their own secrets and motives. George employs his uncanny talent for detecting lies to prevent a deadly disaster involving leaked military tech, but the real challenge is navigating between professional duty and personal loyalty.
This is where Soderbergh’s approach becomes both the film’s greatest strength and its commercial weakness. Black Bag is a taut, smart 90-minute thriller that keeps its cards close to the vest. The director unwinds his spy story with methodical precision, building each twist toward a crescendo that’s as violent as it is romantic. He keeps the pacing brisk and the atmosphere claustrophobic, casting domestic spaces as minefields where one wrong word could end careers — or worse.
I suspect critics celebrated Black Bag for the same reason audiences avoided it: Soderbergh and screenwriter David Koepp mostly dispense with traditional action sequences. One scene revolves around a pistol hidden in a toolbox, but the gun is never drawn. The only explosion occurs in a flashback montage involving a suicide drone.
Compare this to Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005), which features married spies working out their issues through car chases and martial arts, punctuated by maximalist gunplay. Soderbergh is more interested in what his characters reveal through conversation. Thanks to a sharp script and two world-class actors, he delivers an entertaining spy movie that unfolds at kitchen tables and front porches, through surveillance cameras and calendar apps.
Cerebral spy movie fans will embrace Black Bag’s surprisingly intricate style. Small details — a ticket stub, a sudden heart attack — ripple from the actions of hidden hands. George and Kathryn can’t see all the pieces or know all the players, but they have tricks of their own. Sometimes the best defense requires provoking an attack to reveal vulnerability. This proves true in both love and war.
Black Bag is streaming on Peacock.
Joe Nolan is a critic, columnist and performing singer/songwriter based in East Nashville. Find out more about his projects at www.joenolan.com.