Black Bag (2025) Focus/Drama-Thriller RT: 93 minutes Rated R (language including some sexual references, some violence) Director: Steven Soderbergh Screenplay: David Koepp Music: David Holmes Cinematography: Steven Soderbergh (as “Peter Andrews”) Release date: March 14, 2025 (US) Cast: Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender, Marisa Abela, Tom Burke, Naomie Harris, Rege-Jean Page, Pierce Brosnan, Gustaf Skarsgard, Kae Alexander.
Rating: ***
Earlier this year, director Steven Soderbergh and writer David Koepp told audiences a terrifying ghost story in the form of a dysfunctional family drama with Presence which, as I predicted, did not win over mainstream audiences. I doubt they’ll do much better with Black Bag, a spy thriller starring Michael Fassbender (The Killer) and Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine) as married spies NOT at all like Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Their spy business is serious business. Slow and talky, Black Bag will definitely not appeal to viewers looking for something like Jason Bourne.
George (Fassbender), who works for an unspecified British intelligence agency, is tasked with finding the traitor who stole a top-secret software program called Severus (aka The MacGuffin). He’s given a list with the names of five suspects on it. One of them is his wife and fellow agent Kathryn (Blanchett). The others are Freddie (Burke, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga), a young hotshot agent recently passed over for promotion and maybe a little resentful; Clarissa (Abela, Back to Black), a mentally unstable satellite surveillance expert and Freddie’s girlfriend; James (Page, Bridgerton), the cocky agent who did get the promotion and his girlfriend, agency psychiatrist Zoe (Harris, Moneypenny from the recent James Bond films).
To divulge any specific plot details about Black Bag would be tantamount to treason. I’ll only say George gets his investigation rolling by inviting all concerned parties to his house for dinner. He then confronts them with their personal secrets in order to rattle them. The only other bit of info I’m willing to reveal is that former James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan plays the agency head. He may or may not be involved with the leak. Okay, that’s it!
I realize how pessimistic I must sound when I say Black Bag won’t find an audience. Allow me to relate an incident that occurred at the Friday afternoon showing I attended. A couple of audience members loudly discussed getting their money back about thirty or so minutes into the movie. I actually had to shush them. I found later from the manager on duty that the woman did indeed ask for a refund…. after the movie was over! Of course, her request was denied. The woman was upset because it wasn’t what she expected, a James Bond-like action movie. Uh, this is why we watch trailers, to avoid surprises like this. Black Bag is more John le Carre than Ian Fleming.
That being said, I’ll admit to being put off by the film’s slow pace. At the same time, I knew it was leading up to something. Watching Black Bag takes a lot of patience, but it pays off unlike the recent drama Magazine Dreams. It does go somewhere. And no, it’s not an action-packed affair. Instead, it runs on tension. There’s always something going on. It’s the ultimate spy game, a chess match with George skillfully moving the pieces. It assumes its audience is intelligent enough to get it.
The acting in Black Bag is very good. Fassbender and Blanchett work extremely well off of each other. Both of them being part of the intelligence community puts them on a level playing field. They know the tricks of the trade and are prepared to countermove each other’s every move. It’s interesting seeing how they sustain a marriage while working in a profession built on secrecy. Fassbender, playing it calm and cool to an almost eerie degree, keeps the viewer on edge with the steady way he approaches his work. There isn’t much that escapes his gaze. He’s always a few moves ahead of his opponent. Blanchett matches her co-star move for move. She’s a little more sly and playful in her approach to her work. I’d hate to go up against either of them in a poker game.
The supporting cast is equally adept in their roles. They’re all smart, but none of them are any match for George and Kathryn. The standout for me is Abela as the mentally unstable Clarissa. She didn’t do a terrible job as the late singer Amy Winehouse in last summer’s biopic Back to Black, a movie I liked better on a second viewing. She reacts to a revelation about her lover with a shocking sudden act of violence and does so calmly. It’s freaky.
Soderbergh is a skilled filmmaker in spite of s*** shows like the Magic Mike movies. He’s also an amazing cinematographer (as “Peter Andrews”) and editor (as “Mary Ann Bernard”). He’s always on point with his visuals. He employs soft-focus and wide-angle lenses to amp up the feeling of danger. His editing is tight and taut without ever becoming a jumbled visual mess. It’s minimalism at its best. As always, he works in perfect conjunction with Koepp’s smart and tight script. The pacing is too slow for some, but others will appreciate what Soderbergh is going for with Black Bag.
