Steven Soderbergh’s “Black Bag” brings this tense narrative to life with his signature fast-tempo editing and soft-focus cinematography, creating a powerful atmosphere of danger from intense settings to even the dinner table. The film updates mixes Cold War-era spy thriller elements with modern surveillance technology and drone warfare. Writer David Koepp, in his third collaboration with Soderbergh, crafts a script where narrative tension builds primarily through dialogue rather than action sequences and it’s refreshing for this reviewing, longing for a film that rises to the quality of of “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.”
In a high-stakes espionage drama, intelligence officer George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) receives a one-week deadline from his boss Meacham to identify who leaked Severus, a classified software program. Among the five suspects is his own wife Kathryn (Cate Blanchett), also an intelligence agent. The remaining four suspects—satellite specialist Clarissa Dubose (Marisa Abela), her boyfriend and handler Freddie Smalls (Tom Burke), agency psychiatrist Dr. Zoe Vaughan (Naomie Harris), and her boyfriend and handler Colonel James Stokes (Regé-Jean Page)—are invited to dinner at the Woodhouse home. During this gathering, George spikes their meals with a drug to lower their inhibitions and exposes Freddie’s infidelity, prompting Clarissa to stab Freddie’s hand in rage.
Suspicious circumstances surround Meacham’s death from an apparent heart attack. George grows wary of Kathryn after discovering a movie ticket stub in her trash despite her denial of seeing the film. A break-in at Kathryn’s office reveals her upcoming trip to Zurich. With Clarissa’s help redirecting a surveillance satellite, George observes Kathryn meeting a Russian operative in Switzerland. Simultaneously, James discloses to George that Kathryn has access to an unexplained £7 million in a Swiss bank account. During therapy sessions, Zoe probes Kathryn about her priorities before later ending her relationship with James. Freddie alerts Kathryn to George’s suspicions.
While George was focused on Kathryn in Zurich, a Russian agent escaped from Liechtenstein with Severus and began traveling toward Eastern Europe to trigger a nuclear disaster. Kathryn employs Clarissa’s skills to track this operative, suspecting their superior Stieglitz (Pierce Brosnan) deliberately allowed the leak to cause a nuclear meltdown and destabilize the government, regardless of potential civilian casualties. She shares the Russian’s location with CIA contacts, resulting in a drone strike that eliminates both Russians in Poland. After administering polygraph tests to all suspects except Kathryn, George compares notes with his wife in bed, and they realize they’re being framed.
The Woodhouses host a second dinner party for the four suspects. With a gun placed on the table by Kathryn, George announces a game and exposes multiple secrets: Freddie and Zoe’s affair, and how Zoe learned about Severus from James but tried to prevent its use due to her religious convictions. George reveals two concurrent plots—Stieglitz and James orchestrating the Severus leak to cause nuclear catastrophe, while Zoe and Freddie manipulated Kathryn to thwart it. When James seizes the gun and confesses to plotting with Stieglitz and murdering Meacham, his attempt to shoot George fails because the weapon contains blanks. Kathryn fatally shoots James, and the group disposes of his body in a pond before returning to their professional duties. After informing Stieglitz his scheme has failed and suggesting he remove himself, Kathryn and George reaffirm their commitment to each other, noting the untouched £7 million in Zurich remains potentially within their reach.
Fassbender portrays George with “calm and cool” demeanor, maintaining “shark-like focus” behind his thick glasses while studying the suspects. Blanchett’s Kathryn brings “a much more glamorous flair and fondness for cutting remarks,” creating a dynamic where their marriage feels like “a tango, smooth and sharp.” Their rapid-fire dialogue exchanges have been compared to screwball comedy, with “every conversation a test of wills and smarts.” Critics note that while their relationship is questioned by others, their bond remains unshaken despite the high-stakes investigation.
The film has been praised as “a svelte piece of entertainment that feels like a vintage yarn yet very much represents our own current anxieties,” particularly exploring questions of trust in both relationships and high-stakes careers. Soderbergh’s direction, cinematography, and editing create what reviewers have called “a smart, sexy spy vs. spy thriller fought mostly over dialogue” that keeps viewers dissecting the film long after the conclusion.
Letter Grade: A