Black Bag (2025)

Like most spy thriller movies, I’m sorry to say, excellent or otherwise, Black Bag lost me with its many security levels, espionage protocols, and high-tech gizmos up the ying-yang. I got this far: There’s a leak at the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). Counterintelligence officer George T. Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) has been put in charge of uncovering it. There are five chief suspects, two couples and Woodhouse’s wife Kathryn (Cate Blanchett). A husband’s suspicion of his wife is a Hitchcockian kind of premise that rarely fails to raise plot stakes quite high. George invites the handful of suspects to a collegial dinner party, dopes the food so their inhibitions are lowered, and plays psychological games looking for insight. He may or may not get much, but violence erupts as infidelities are confirmed. In general, Kathryn is starting to look better for it. Common sense about such plots also makes her more likely for the sake of drama. But that might be misdirection too as down the rabbit hole we go, the investigation deepening. Kathryn is seen meeting (via surreptitious satellite access) with a mysterious Russian in Zurich for reasons unclear. There’s also a mysterious Swiss bank account with millions of pounds in it. By the time of the second dinner party, I was pretty well lost, although, like keeping an eye focused on one cup in the shell game, I followed Kathryn’s movements and interactions closely. However, I still can’t say if I was right—partly because ensuing events became complicated and confusing for me, and partly because I’m dutybound anyway to withhold spoilers. Even mystified as I was, Black Bag was zippy and entertaining. Fassbender disappears into his role in his usual uncanny way, and Blanchett struts the frame and holds attention any time she is in it, as usual. The supporting cast is great too, notably Marisa Abela as Clarissa, one of the suspects. Director Steven Soderbergh has an affinity for this kind of pseudo-intellectual cat and mouse thriller, often involving spies and even more often complicated plots that people like me have a hard time following, even if we’re enjoying the way it rolls. I enjoyed the way Black Bag rolls even when I lost track of who was designing what on whom. It’s good to see Soderbergh coming out of retirement to make a couple of stalwart, flashy ones the past year or two, Black Bag and Presence. Good stuff.