At The Movies: Black Bag is a tense Steven Soderbergh spy thriller about trust and deception

Black Bag (NC16)

93 minutes, opens on March 27
★★★★☆

The story: A set of couples who work in British intelligence are invited to a dinner organised by senior officer George (Michael Fassbender) and his wife and fellow agent Kathryn (Cate Blanchett). Among the guests is a double agent selling secrets that will put the lives of thousands in jeopardy. During dinner and over the coming days, George receives information that raises suspicions about several in the group, including his wife. Stieglitz (Pierce Brosnan), head of the organisation, becomes involved, complicating George’s investigation.

It has been a while since the release of a twisting, dialogue-driven espionage thriller in the vein of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011). Black Bag not only fills the gap, but it also updates the format with humour and an exciting, free-flowing visual style that is the trademark of Hollywood director Steven Soderbergh.

Veteran screenwriter David Koepp – behind the supernatural thriller Presence (2024), also helmed by Soderbergh and showing in Singapore cinemas – names the main character George, paying homage to George Smiley, the cunning and colourless spymaster created by British author John le Carre.

Like Smiley, George Woodhouse is the perfect British bureaucrat – he is meticulous, soft-spoken and never calls attention to himself. Polite to a fault, he fools others into thinking they can bamboozle or browbeat him. And like le Carre’s creation in Tinker Tailor, he has a mole whom he must smoke out.

The people under suspicion – who coincidentally form a set of romantically linked couples – each has an alibi who seems perfectly believable.

When Black Bag departs from the le Carre template, it does so in dramatic fashion. For one thing, George is a skilled cybersleuth. This makes him almost omniscient in a world where digital trails are impossible to hide.

He and Kathryn are also fashion-model glamorous – their clothes and their London home display their firm grasp on quiet chic.

Both Blanchett and Fassbender are in great form. As the pair sitting at the nexus formed by two other couples, they are a believable blend of professional coolness towards others and loving warmth towards each other.

George’s digital superpowers allow him to confirm the whereabouts of the suspects, the couples Freddie and Clarissa (Tom Burke and Marisa Abela) and Dr Vaughan and James (Naomie Harris and Rege-Jean Page).

The all-seeing George has absolute certainty about the where, but his electronics cannot show him the why. The gap between the where and the why forms the compelling driving conflict of the story – it is the place where the messy personal lives of operatives spill over into their jobs.

The central paradox in the agents’ lives is that while British intelligence has taken their privacy, the same organisation has made infidelity all too easy. Just by telling their partner that an errand is a “black bag” operation – top secret – they get to disappear for hours or days.

As one character puts it: “When you can lie about everything, how can you tell the truth about anything?”

Hot take: Soderbergh’s stylish espionage thriller brilliantly updates the classic mole hunt formula with spies whose skills at deception complicate their intimate relationships.