Lately it seems that Michael Fassbender has been content with playing automatons, not quite flesh and blood people. When he appeared in 2023's "The Killer," he assumed a robotic stance not unlike his android role in "Prometheus." In "Black Bag," it is near impossible to feel much of anything towards his character who is so detached that talking about espionage and deception is more thrilling than his own marriage. The same is true of Cate Blanchett in this movie, though she shows a little more sass and sparkle. Maybe working in British Intelligence requires one to appear robotic so that nobody can catch what you are really thinking or doing. Any giveaway could lead to misinterpretation, getting fired or possibly death. If "Black Bag" had followed that rather intriguing line of thinking, I might not have felt so sleepy-eyed while watching it.
A leak has occurred with a secret software, a cyber-worm program called Severus, at the National Cyber Security Centre. This leak and data breach may initiate a Russian nuclear meltdown. Fassbender is British Intelligence officer George Woodhouse who has one week to discover the leak's identity. This is dangerous work and the twist (somewhat revealed teasingly in the trailer) is that George's wife, Kathryn St. Jean (Cate Blanchett), also an Intelligence officer, may be involved. Or maybe it is high-strung satellite expert, Clarissa (Marisa Abela), who doesn't think twice about stabbing her beau in the hand. The beau is the sardonic Freddie (Tom Burke), another possible culprit, or it could be the psychologist Dr. Zoe Vaughan (Naomie Harris), all of whom are on site at British Intelligence. Also on hand is the young colonel James Stokes (Regé-Jean Page), who had dated the psychologist! How do we know? Well, they are invited to dinner at the Woodhouse home and end up confessing everything (thanks to a truth serum injected in their food) except about the Severus leak. It is easily the best scene in the film, not to mention a second sequence later on where they are all invited back to the Woodhouse home sans dinner. Those scenes are tightly wound and have some measured tension. The rest of "Black Bag" is just a chore to sit through.
Director Steven Soderbergh helms this thriller without much interest. Scenes play out in the driest possible manner and they did not hold my attention. I was not expecting merciless fireworks by way of high-powered action scenes or explosions - spy thrillers from authors like Ludlum or John Le Carre are dependent on plot machinations and deeply resonant character portrayals. There are limited fireworks in "Black Bag" when it comes to the relationships between these agency members and the crucial marriage between George and Kathryn. Not helping matters is the deliberate washed-out look of the film that made me avert my eyes from the screen more often than not. I know Soderbergh, serving as his own cinematographer, has tried his hand at filtered visual looks in his past work but here, it merely clouds the screen.
It is also a shame considering the high-powered cast that includes Fassbender and Blanchett. I never bought them as a married couple - it appears throughout the film that they are bored with each other. As aforementioned, Marisa Abela as Clarissa really lights up the screen with her invigorating presence. Same with reliable pro Pierce Brosnan as the agency's chief who suggests so much without saying anything that you are never sure what he might be up to. Writer David Koepp is also the wrong person to handle this type of thriller - he doesn't infuse much gravitas into any of this. This type of story has been done to death and, other than the theme of secrets between a married spy couple (the black bag as it were), I found nothing new or refreshing about any of it. If you like stories about moles in the spy business, stick with "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy."
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