MICHAEL FASSBENDER IN BLACK BAG

Spies into the warm

Stephen Soderbergh's new movie focuses on a tight-knit little group of British spies who learn they have a traiter in their midst. The most responsible among them must ferret out the spy among the spies. The cost if this mission fails will be major destruction. But warning: apart from the torching of one vehicle, the film of which is economically used twice, there is nothing you could call an explosion on, or off, screen, nor anything like a gunfight, nor prolonged periods of grave danger. This is a well-plotted tale, crrafted by the ace screenwriter David Koepp, but very much a chamber piece. Do not expect high-speed chases. Suitable for grandmothers, if they like this sort of thing. This is a little more fun than some of Soderbergh's late stage entertainments, but the excitement is still largely muted.

In the two lead roles are MIchael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett as George Woodhouse and Kathryn St. Jean. They are a couple. Fassbinder is just as drab and stiff as he was a year or so ago in David incher's The Killer. But Blanchett, if her siren cheekbones are photographed a bit too sculpturally (there are issues with the images sometimes), at least gets to slip in and out of some slinky outfits. Often a couple would be a liability in any operation but here, it seems, they provide double security, at least to each other, pledging to defend each other with their life. This had better seem plausible to you because the plot rather hinges upon it.

There is an actor who seemed to think he was Orson Welles and in my innocence I had forgotten that indeed Tom Burke, who plays Freddie Smalls here, took the role of Wells in the movie Mank. In the opening dinner party, he explodes, and pays for it. There is the team therapist, Dr. Zoe Vaughan (Naomie Harris). There is a "Bridgerton" aristocrat, Regé-Jean Page, whose name here is Col. James Stokes. And there is Clarisa (Marisa Abela). Only one is allowed to sport the kind of clothes-horse nattiness we sometimes used to expect from the well-bred spy, and that is Pierce Brosnan. He goes by the unlikely moniker of Arthur Stieglitz (an homage to the great still photographer Alfred, perhaps) and is sort of the boss of it all:. Out of operations, he doesn't have to wear protective coloring. There is a mole. Woodhouse has to suspect even his wife, as well as Clarisa, Freddie, James and Zoe. And we must also suspect Arthur and George. And David and Stephen of pulling the wool over our eyes.

The cinematography as usual is by Soderbergh himself under the name of Peter Andrews and typically this has a very digital look, here achieved reportedly with a RED V- RAPTOR [X] camera. It's a cold, hard style, unattractive in most interiors but more appealing when used for very wide-angle exterior shots. It works. But some online commenters have said this is "basically a play." Mind you, the acting is very good indeed. This is also a film one might enjoy rewatching to savor how all its parts work so neatly together.

One trouble is that we have seen so many good TV spy series, even the two-season 2024 "The Agency," starring none other than Michael Fassbender himself. I have heard nothing but good things about the five-season (2015-2020) French spy series "Le Bureau." Though there is crdaftsmanship, I'd have liked to have seen more tradecraft in Black Bag, and more of the Enemy.

This feels like a film that thinks it is more accomplished than it is, and from the Metascore of 85, so do a lot of the critics. You have to wonder if the most exciting thing is the wavering needle on the lie-detector test. But: this is a film that gets out of our way before we have time to get too tired of it.

To find anything this good at this time of year is welcome. But if you have more time and want more action, excitement, and silliness, you must go to the other auditorium down the hall and watch Mickey 17.

Black Bag, 93 mins., opened in many countries Mar. 12, 2025 and in the US Mar. 14. Metacritic rating: 85%. AlloCiné French ratings are: press 3.6 (72%) and public 3.2 (64%). French title: The Insider.

_________________
©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.