As cinema has been overtaken by sequels, prequels, reboots, and superhero movies, it's been hard to find good spy thrillers over the past few years. Black Bag, the newest movie by director Steven Soderbergh, falls somewhere between good and average, preventing it from going down as a must-see spy movie.
Black Bag follows couple George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) and Kathryn St. Jean (Cate Blanchett) as they investigate who leaked a new software called Severus. In the movie's introduction, George is given a list of potential suspects and finds that Kathryn is one of the names he needs to investigate.
His other suspects are Clarissa (Marisa Abela), Freddie (Tom Burke), Zoe (Naomie Harris), and James (Regé-Jean Page). George decides to invite all of the suspects over for dinner, and it brings one of the standout scenes of the entire film. As the group conversates throughout the evening, you can slowly feel the tension rising, and it leads to an unexpected moment that is filmed beautifully.
Fassbender and Blanchett's Chemistry
Fassbender fits naturally into his role as George, but his chemistry with Blanchett feels off throughout the film. Their romantic scenes feel wooden and that should be the easiest part of a thriller like this. Whether that was intended to raise our level of distrust in the characters is unknown, but it never feels like these characters would actually be together in real life.
The true standout of the film is Abela who plays the role of Clarissa perfectly. Throughout the entire film, you can feel her waiting to snap like a rubber band, and it leads to an investment in her character that I struggled with for Harris and Burke. Whether purposeful or not, her chemistry with Fassbender throughout the movie was one of the best parts of the entire film.
Unfortunately, Zoe and Freddie both felt like stock characters—Zoe is the unemotional psychiatrist, and Freddie is the party animal who can't keep it in his pants. Their performances felt underwhelming compared to Abela and Fassbender, and it became hard to invest in their character's development throughout the film.
Page's performance as James was better than Harris and Burke, but it still feels like he hasn't found a way to fully grasp his natural charm and charisma into a consistent run of standout performances. The cast is also joined by Pierce Brosnan who is always good in these movies, but his character, Arthur, is developmentally lackluster.
Final Thoughts
George's investigation eventually leads to Clarissa, Freddie, Zoe, and James being hooked up to a polygraph machine and results in the best scene of the movie and one of the best from any film I've seen this year. Soderbergh directed and wrote this part of the film perfectly, but it makes you wish the rest of the movie had the same impact.
Soderbergh will always attempt to push boundaries in his filmmaking and I was honestly surprised to find out this wasn't filmed on an iPhone. The film includes so many close-ups and wide angles with distorted imagery that eventually it felt like more of a distraction than something that added to the film's overall appeal.
The film's ending also resulted in disappointment as Soderbergh had a chance to make a truly impactful moment, but seemed to go with the safe result so the crowd could leave happy at the end. It's always hard to end a movie like this in a way that makes everyone happy, but it results in a movie that is overall forgettable and likely won't be talked about after the year ends.
Black Bag is now playing in theaters.