With this quick-witted and sexually supercharged espionage caper, Steven Soderbergh and his screenwriter David Koepp (Jurassic Park) have just remade Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy for the Industry generation.
Cerebral rather than action-packed, it’s like a classic le Carré (or, with its Harry Palmer allusions, Len Deighton) thriller, brought bang up to date with stylish direction, outrageously thirsty acting, and some bone-dry wit. There’s also a Ukraine invasion subplot to keep things uncomfortably topical.
Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett are married couple George and Kathryn Woodhouse – a pair of British spies who bring far too much work home with them. He has the calm, measured air (and glasses) of his namesake George Smiley, and a fastidiousness that’s perfect for his job but could be deeply annoying on date night. She’s cool with it – she’s cool, generally. The so-called ‘black bag’, a metaphorical mechanism employed by spooks to keep some semblance of work/life balance, helps keep the intel and intimacy apart.
At least, it should. But a slick opening Steadicam sequence through a Mayfair nightclub sees George learning that there’s a traitor in his team’s midst – and Kathryn’s name is firmly on the shortlist.
It’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy for the Industry generation
Soderbergh gathers all the suspects – agency shrink Zoe (Naomie Harris), tech whiz Clarissa (Marisa Abela), cocky field agent James (Regé-Jean Page) and morally compromised veteran Freddie (Tom Burke) – for a dinner at the Woodhouse’s. It’s comfortably the best dialogue scene of the year to date: a battle of wits over drugged chana dal. The half-cut spooks litigate grudges, personal and professional, spilling right over each other’s boundaries, as George studies them for tells. Cut with a scalpel by Soderbergh (editing under his pseudonym Mary Ann Bernard), it sets up the mole hunt in magnetic style.
What a killer ensemble this is – one bolstered, fittingly, by an ex-007, Pierce Brosnan, as the team’s ruthless spymaster. Back to Black’s Abela, in particular, is on fire here. ‘When are you going to chair me, George?’ she purrs, like the threat of a polygraph test was the last word in erotic promise.
Undercutting its high-stakes plotting with sly humour (‘Darling, you may not dose the guests’) and a few pointed observations about trust – or lack of it – in married life, Black Bag is a best blend of romcom and spy thriller to match Mr and Mrs Smith (the vinegar-sharp Prime Video series, not the so-so film).
It’s also a glamorous but grounded London movie. Soderbergh shies away from obvious spying spots – Hampstead Heath, Whitehall, etc – to bring the genre bang up to date with some enjoyably relatable locations. (Because who doesn’t want to see Cate Blanchett doing a dead drop in a Pret a Manger?)
Black bag your Friday night plans and spend a couple of hours with these sexy psychopaths.
In cinemas worldwide Fri Mar 14.