Cate Blanchett stars as Kathryn St. Jean in Steven Soderbergh's Black Bag. Photo / supplied
Cate Blanchett stars as Kathryn St. Jean in Steven Soderbergh's Black Bag. Photo / supplied
This enjoyably smart and twisty espionage thriller boasts a former James Bond, the most recent Miss Moneypenny, and a male lead who delivers his lines with the sang-froid of the movies’ longest-serving spy.
But this is no 007 tribute. For their third thriller together, director Steven Soderbergh and writer DavidKoepp have headed to London for a mole hunt that is set in a high-tech present, but can feel more like a classic Cold War yarn with a touch of le Carré about it.
Powerhouse performers Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender star as a married couple of spies in Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre. Fassbender is veteran spook George Woodhouse, a taciturn hunter of traitors, whose passionate marriage to Blanchett’s sultry Kathryn St Jean is thrown into suspicion when he is informed that someone – possibly his wife – is betraying their country.
Suddenly everyone is to be regarded with George’s hard-eyed distrust. The Woodhouses host a dinner party of four of their admiring younger colleagues so that George can use his legendary sleuthing skills to sniff out the mole.
With his neutral suits, dark-rimmed glasses, and dispassionate delivery, Fassbender certainly fits the part. As the calm centre in an increasingly hysterical storm, his face hardly twitches as he applies subtle pressure on his agency underlings: Tom Burke (Strike) is brilliant as the drunkard Freddie. His tech expert girlfriend Clarissa is played by the superb Marissa Abela (Back to Black). Making up the increasingly on-edge sextet are the company’s shrink (Naomie Harris, Moneypenny in three 007 films), and Regé-Jean Page (Bridgerton). Meanwhile, former Bond Pierce Brosnan has a blast as the bellowing agency boss.
Tensions rise in this wordy thriller, which is best when the actors are seated and snarking sarcastically at each other about their “flagrant monogamy” and flawed moral character.
Blanchett is a bit too mannered with her baked-in wry smile, but the script cleverly sets everyone up as potentially duplicitous.
While not note-perfect, Black Bag is engagingly old-fashioned with its Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy tone and a reminder that spies seem to have the most exciting sex lives. And there’s nothing as satisfying as watching a bunch of morally bankrupt characters slowly unravel.
Rating out of five: ★★★★
Black Bag, directed by Steven Soderbergh, is out now.
