Director – Steven Soderbergh – 2025 – US – Cert. 15 – 93m
*
A spy is tasked with finding and eliminating a mole from a list of five suspects – one of whom is his wife… out in UK cinemas on Friday, March 14th
London-based George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) meets with a fellow operative, who informs him the organisation has been compromised. To sort this out, and find and eliminate the mole, the operative has produced a list of five suspects. One of which is George’s wife, Kathryn St. Jean, because she ticks all the suspect boxes. Neglecting to tell Kathryn (Cate Blanchett) that she is one of the names on the list, George enlists her help in concocting a plan to identify the suspect. In the spy business, relationships inevitably involve not telling things to one another and not asking about them either.
Thus, the couple invite four colleagues – Freddie Smalls (Tom Burke), Clarissa Dubose (Marisa Abela), Col. James Stokes (Regé-Jean Page) and psychiatrist Dr. Zoe Vaughan (Naomie Harris) – round to their lavish London flat for dinner, where each of the four are surprised to discover three more guests than they anticipated. At the dinner table, George commences his plan by having his guests play a game. Further down his plan is the idea of carrying out a lie detector test, but that will have to wait until later. By the end of the evening, he is no closer to knowing the suspect’s identity…
While this is a great set-up for a spy thriller, there is nothing about any of the characters that evokes the slightest bit of sympathy that might allow you to get a handle on them for them. Granted, the conversation and the back and forth cut and thrust within it unearths some clandestine sexual liaisons, but that, of itself, doesn’t do the job. That said, if the opening meeting and dinner party hold the attention almost on the grounds of tension alone, what follows doesn’t grip the audience in the same way. Much use is subsequently made of various characters being cross-examined on Dr. Zoe Vaughan’s psychiatrist’s couch, and the film plays a further casting ace by making an ageing, grey-haired Pierce Brosnan the organisation’s besuited boss. Yet, despite the actor’s trademark twinkle in his eye, the cold and distant nature of his character as written on the page means he’s as difficult to relate to as everyone else here.
Curiously, the film picks up again as it draws to a close, as George subjects the various suspects to the lie detector test promised in the opening reel, in which separate tests on a series of subjects are presented (either through clever scripting or judicious editing later in the filmmaking process) as if they were just one test as, for example, a question is asked and the person who answers it in the next shot isn’t the one we thought was being asked that question.
For the finale, in the long-established, screenwriting tradition of having narrative endings mirror openings, George and Kathryn stage a second dinner party, with a different game – one involving a handgun placed in the centre of the table. Like its opening counterpart, this scene, too, is compelling.
All this feels like someone had a great idea for an opening, a great idea for an ending, and no idea what to do in between. And a set of characters for whom the audience struggle to have any sympathy. Which suggests something that, with further script development, could have been very effective had these issues been ironed out. Perhaps the lie detector test scene should have been placed earlier in the proceedings – we are tantalised with the prospect of it early on, but then it takes an eternity to arrive (and this is in a commendably brief 90-odd minute running length, which gives some idea of the film’s problems). As it stands, aside from the impressive bookends, and a stellar cast pulling out all the stops, this is a slog to be avoided at all costs.
Which is a shame, because the trailer makes it look terrific. You have been warned.
Black Bag is out in cinemas in the UK on Friday, March 14th.
Trailer: