Availability: Showing in theaters nationally; expected to be available for rent or purchase as soon as mid-April, and streaming on Peacock shortly after that. See JustWatch here for all streaming availability.
Colonel Mustard Did It
With director Steven Soderbergh (“Sex, Lies, and Videotape,” 1985) at the helm, and Cate Blanchett (Kathryn St. Jean) and Michael Fassbender as power couple spies, one might anticipate a complex, sophisticated thriller of a film, packed with international intrigue and showcasing the sexual attraction of two of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Instead, it’s a rather traditional whodunnit, the 1943 board game Clue brought to the screen, with Fassbender’s hyper-rationalist George Woodhouse in a Sherlock Holmes-like role, charged with figuring out which one of 5 people in the British spy agency is not to be trusted. As for sex, 2 very similar scenes bookend the production, neither of them leading anywhere, and maybe it’s all for the best: the chemistry isn’t there. Just as George and Kathryn have little interest in making love, viewers will find they don’t care much about Severus, a software program that could melt down a nuclear reactor, which would, of course, be bad, very bad.
The first, elaborate, dinner-table scene is full of obscure references and fast talking. George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) top left, interrogates his fellow spies, including, top right, his wife, Kathryn St. Jean (Cate Blanchett). The others parrying with George and Kathryn are, left, Colonel James Stokes (Regé-Jean Page) and Dr. Zoe Vaughan (Naomie Harris), and right from front, Clarissa Dubose (Marisa Abela) and Freddie Smalls (Tom Burke).
Much of the tension is generated in two dinner-table scenes at George and Kathryn’s stylish London townhouse, 3 on each side, with George probing the unaware guests for the identity of the traitor. Amid the talky chaos of in-jokes, spy jargon (don’t worry, you are expected to “feel” the vibe, not understand all the words), and 4 new characters, the players gradually emerge: Freddie Smalls (Tom Burke, Orson Welles in “Mank”[2020]) and Clarissa Dubose (Marisa Abela) are a contentious, go-for-the-jugular couple. They have the “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” (2005) chemistry that George and Kathryn lack, but Freddie drinks too much and has been regularly unfaithful (a vulnerability), despite his assertions to the contrary; Clarissa, a piss-and-vinegar techno-wiz, could be said to lack the temperament for the job. Colonel James Stokes (Regé-Jean Page), Black and humorless, tries too hard (another vulnerability).
As for sex, 2 very similar scenes bookend the production, neither of them leading anywhere, and maybe it’s all for the best.
Seasoned writer David Koepp (among his many credits are “Jurassic Park” [1993 and 1997], a couple “Indiana Jones” [2008, 2023] and “Spider-Man” [2002]) employs the classic “is-there-a-spy-in-my-bed?” times however many liaisons are going on. Col. Stokes is extra-curricular partnering with Dr. Zoe Vaughan (Naomie Harris), the in-office shrink, who has multiple bed-mates, and Clarissa as well as Freddie has sexual side gigs. Although the 4 are distinct and well-defined, the script is not constructed to make us care about them. Unlike George and Kathryn, we never see any of them at home. They are just part of the spy plot.
Not quite a kiss: Blanchett and Fassbender don't bring the heat
to their characters Kathryn and George.
“I hate liars,” George says (an odd pillar to stand on, given that his profession depends on lies), and his dinner-table interrogation is all about who’s lying and who isn’t. Importantly, George applies the same standard to his marriage, using the spy lingo for romantic wooing: “I won’t lie to you. I would do anything for you. Even kill? Yes, even kill.” During a polygraph of Clarissa, George expands on the theme. “Are you loyal?” he asks Clarissa, who replies, “to what?” To George, the answer is obvious: the marriage, for George an inviolable bond that exists above all others yet somehow insures loyalty to the agency, and to the nation as well.
This obsession of George’s puts Kathryn at the center of the drama. Can she be trusted, absolutely, in all her roles? A movie ticket in a wastebasket has George wondering. And those bloodless, stylized sex scenes may be designed to suggest that Kathryn could be just another cool femme fatale—Barbara Stanwyck in 1944’s “Double Indemnity”—rather than Angelina Jolie’s passionate and loyal Mrs. Smith.
Despite its writing inheritance, glossy surface, and upscale production design, “Black Bag” fails to deliver the tight story that one expects from a spy thriller.
It's almost inconceivable that a high-level spy would, on the one hand, be appointed to conduct an investigation that might lead to his wife; and, on the other hand, believe as George does that marital fidelity is the key to all other honorable behaviors. Despite its writing inheritance, glossy surface, and upscale production design, “Black Bag” fails to deliver the tight story that one expects from a spy thriller. It’s not clear just how that vehicle in Poland gets blown up, or why Meacham (Gustaf Skarsgård—what’s a thriller these days without a Skarsgård?), who initiates the inquiry, is killed. For all his rationality, George’s polygraph questions often miss the mark. As written, Zoe is a particularly flawed character, perfectly positioned—as the psychiatrist in TV’s “The Sopranos” taught us so well— to provide provocative back stories, yet failing to do so.
The final set piece, at the dinner table but stripped of the dinner and of the jargon that confused audiences in the first dinner scene—adds one more piece of incredulity (it will be obvious), while resolving the mystery and adding a moment of (yes, unnecessary) violence in a film that could use more of it, or more action. Soderbergh opts for the cerebral over the physical, mind over body, theory over plot. It ought to work, but doesn’t. “Sex, Lies, and Videotape”-lite. The butler did it.
He says: Style over substance. A waste of talent.
She says: It wants to be “Knives Out” (2019) and start a series, but it lacks that franchise’s playfulness and caring about secondary characters (in spite of there being a knife).
Date: 20254)
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett, Tom Burke, Marisa Abela, Regé-Jean Page, Naomie Harris, Gustaf Skarsgård, Pierce Brosnan
Country: United States
Language: English (with British accents some found difficult to understand)
Runtime: 93 minutes
Other Awards: None to date
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