A One Mann’s Movies review of “Black Bag” (2025).
Steven Soderbergh and David Koep team up again with “Black Bag” (they were last in cinemas mere weeks ago with “Presence“). This is a solid and satisfying spy thriller that comes in at a tidy 90 minutes and which I absolutely loved.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
“Black Bag” Plot:
Sophisticated couple George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) and Kathryn St. Jean (Cate Blanchett) both work for the British intelligence services. They are devoted to each other and would each “kill” for each other. But when George is asked to investigate a mole in the organisation and suspicion falls on Kathryn, how will he square his cold and calculated professionalism with his personal feelings?
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC web site: “Strong language, sex references, brief violence”.)
Talent:
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett, Tom Burke, Marisa Abela, Regé-Jean Page, Naomie Harris, Pierce Brosnan, Gustaf Skarsgård.
Directed by: Steven Soderbergh.
Written by: David Koepp.
Running Time: 1h 33m.
“Black Bag” Summary:
Positives:
- Hugely entertaining spy thriller, with Harry Palmer vibes.
- Top quality cast that gel together perfectly.
- Story that kept me guessing to the end.
- Neat, jazz-based soundtrack by David Holmes.
Negatives:
- Fonts!
Review of “Black Bag”:
Harry Palmer vibes.
A cool, impassive spy hero. Black, thick-rimmed glasses. A cool jazz score. Yep, I’m obviously describing Michael Caine as Harry Palmer in the series of films in the 60’s that started with “The Ipcress Files” in 1965 and continued through 4 other films (counting two dodgy TV movies in the mid-90’s). But in this film, I got strong Harry Palmer vibes from Michael Fassbender’s performance here. True, he lives in a much swankier house and has a gorgeous wife in the form of Cate Blanchett. But you can’t help but think Soderbergh was deliberately channelling a bit of Caine there. The connection is supported by a really neat jazzy score by David Holmes that I enjoyed very much.
But, whatever the intention, it all works wonderfully well. You feel the tension of the overt love and total devotion between the couple matched with a sense of suspicion that, as the viewer, you never know whether is justified or not. Both Fassbender and Blanchett – playing an almost textbook cool Hitchcock femme fatale – play this to perfection.
What a great cast!
Supporting them is a truly terrific cast of supporting actors.
- Tom Burke, TV’s “Strike”, is rogueishly charming as Freddie with Marisa Abela as his girlfriend Clarissa, terrific in her first film since playing Winehouse in “Back to Black“.
- Regé-Jean Page, surely still an option for a future Bond, simmers with suspicion as George’s boss James Stokes.
- The ever-wonderful Naomie Harris is great in the role of the psychologist Zoe Vaughan. She always seems so effortlessly natural in her acting roles. A scene where she is engaged in a bout of verbal jousting while interviewing Blanchett’s character is superb.
- And not forgetting the talents of Pierce Brosnan as the top boss Arthur Stieglitz. Brosnan is back in suave mode again, with sharp suits and a taste for very fresh sushi and he’s not had such a good role in a long time.
Who can you trust?
Having a psychologist in such a key role in a psyhological thriller is a masterstroke from writer David Koepp. For the key question raised by this film is who can you trust? And the answer, with such professional spies, is noone. At one point Clarissa bemoans the fact that the only relationships they can have is with other people in the service. But “When you can lie about everything, when you can deny everything, how do you tell the truth about anything?”.
Keeps you guessing.
With any film like this, the outcome of the story is the clincher and this one doesn’t disappoint. You are kept guessing for the entire, tight, 93-minute run time. “Will we have to clean up a mess?”. Quite possibly!
Fonts!
The action takes place over just over a week and you keep track of where you are through captions of the days of the week. This is a really stupid niggle, but the font used for these looks to be almost exactly the same as used in “Friends”. Not helped by the first day being “Fri…..day”! I just found that a bit distracting.
Summary Thoughts on “Black Bag”
This is a top-class 90-minute film from Soderbergh and Koepp that both myself and the illustrious Mrs Movie Man enjoyed immensely. Intriguing, propulsive, well-acted, well-written, it’s very much recommended and I think this one could make one of the slots in my Films of the Year list.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “Black Bag”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du0Xp8WX_7I .
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