Relationships as a spy must be difficult, even more so when you’re both spies. Trust can never be maintained if, when asked where you’ll be tonight, the answer is ‘black bag’ aka it’s classified. So when George (Michael Fassbender) is told there’s 5 people who could be the leaker of highly classified technology capable of setting off nuclear reactors, and one of them is your wife Kathryn (Cate Blanchett), he systematically narrows exactly who the rat is piece by piece as the story unfolds. 

The best thing about Black Bag is it’s ability to convey this semi-trustworthy relationship between George and Kathryn; he wants what’s best for her, and multiple times he says he would kill for her. When is true monogamous love shown in this genre? When you think of spies you think of James Bond, ultimate fuck machine who cares not for women’s feelings or relationships at any point. Contrast that to George who uses other people’s complicated love lives to push them into corners, when that could never be used on him due to the unspoken trust in his marriage. I very much enjoyed this angle in a tried and tested genre, freshened it up a little bit. I do still think a lot of the plot lines in the second act threw me for a while, trying to connect all the dots when you’re thrown so much spy jargon can become difficult, but they tied it all up in a nice bow by the end.

Feeling like Michael Fassbender has finally started his next phase of his career, he’s a little older now and the films he’s made in the last couple years (The Killer, Kneecap) have started to deal with a man aging into the middle of his life, experience has started to kick in and he often seems like he has everything under control when he really doesn’t. Cate Blanchett is good in this too, she has that sultry older woman charm about her, seems so elusive in this film! Big points to Marisa Abela, who stole every scene she was in, and Tom Burke, who I will continue to shout about as one of the best up and comer older actors we have in Hollywood today.

Director Steven Soderbergh is such a professional filmmaker. Six of his last nine films have been around the 90 minute mark, there is a fantastic ability for him to just jump straight into the story, there isn’t a single ounce of fat in the plot that needs cutting and I adore that from him. Feel like he’s one of the few filmmakers out there making solid dramas for adults and I wish there were more like him. He’s pumping out one or two films per year too which is amazing. Not only that, he’s making films with proper lighting. There’s a dinner party scene that had such fantastic lights on the table that I was in awe of what I was seeing, it’s time for Hollywood to re-learn how to light a scene again!

Overall, a very solid spy thriller with some great characters and a plot with many twists and turns. With a little clearer 2nd act this could’ve been up there with Soderbergh’s best.