Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag has almost everything you’d expect from a spy movie: explosions, betrayal, sexual tension, and beautiful actors. The plot, too, which involves a software program that could trigger nuclear war, is nothing new. But what makes Black Bag an enjoyable treat is less content and more delivery. Black Bag is swift and sexy, from the music to the movements. It doesn’t waste a single second and moves through the mystery before you can guess who the mole is terrorizing world safety and, more important to George and Kathryn, their sacred marriage. Though Fassbender and Blanchett are predictably breathtaking, the supporting cast, which includes Bridgerton’s Regé-Jean Page and Industry’s Marisa Abela are equally compelling.
"The cast of luminaries lend the thinly sketched characters distinctive personalities, but the real star is the technology of spycraft: Soderbergh grimly delights in exposing its eerie powers and potentially devastating uses."
— Richard Brody
"This is a matter of complementary craft; of two great listeners and communicators bringing rapture to every gesture."
— Angelica Jade Bastién
When intelligence agent Kathryn Woodhouse is suspected of betraying the nation, her husband – also a legendary agent – faces the ultimate test of whether to be loyal to his marriage, or his country.
George (Michael Fassbender) and his wife Kathryn (Cate Blanchett) are high-ranking employees in a British intelligence agency and keep secrets from each other when necessary. However, when Kathryn is suspected of treason, George has to decide between duty and marriage.
You wouldn’t expect it from a spy thriller, but the standout scenes happen in a family dining room, with the main players sitting across each other at a table. The setup is very simple but also, like the entire movie, suspenseful and sexy.
It forgoes current movies’ obsession with plot twists for a good old-fashioned mystery (and it has gorgeous looks to spare).
