Black Bag, directed by Steven Soderbergh is a brand new entry into the spy espionage genre. This movie focuses on a marriage between two spies, as a potential leak in their organization drives a stake of paranoia through the middle of their relationship. With a cast full of equally untrustworthy side characters, this movie lends itself to a full-on mystery that leaves the audience wondering not only who the leak is, but if the main relationship can survive this conspiracy.
Soderbergh does an excellent job of setting up the environment for this movie. The aesthetic and vibe immediately draw you into the tone of the film, and it is carried throughout the whole film. The cinematography and color grading really lend themselves to making everyone, in every scene, seem to be suspicious. Soderbergh shows his filmmaking expertise through this film and heightens what could easily become long drawn-out scenes by giving them an extra edge.
The writing of this film is very clever. A majority of the first half of the movie consists of spies being sarcastic toward each other, and the writing in these scenes is witty and at some times very funny. However, these scenes often drag on longer than needed. In most cases, the tension and suspicion that is brought to the surface in these scenes fizzles because of the extended runtime of each scene. The wit and consistent feeling of not being able to trust someone is great for a movie like this, but when it’s too overplayed it can cause the audience to lose the plot. I feel the same about the amount of characters in this movie. Each character is rich and characterized well in the film, but because of the tight 90-minute runtime, no one really gets enough time to fully resonate with the audience. Because of the excess of important characters, this film missed out on really developing even one or two of them.
The mystery in this movie was handled really well, and the reveal was surprising. They also did a really good job of not letting the mystery hijack the tone of the movie too much. This film at its core is a very quiet film, as the majority of its tension doesn’t come from action or intimidation but from wordplay and conversation. The final act was by far my favorite as it comes to a satisfying conclusion while staying in line with the film’s tone. There’s no big action set piece because there doesn’t need to be. Instead, the film’s climax is more dialog-driven, which does an extremely good job of untangling the web of lies throughout the film.
My biggest issue with this movie overall was the relationship between George (Michael Fassbender) and Kathryn (Cate Blanchett), the married couple the film focuses on. This movie would’ve been much better if it focused more on the struggle between believing a loved one and believing the evidence that is presented to you. Instead, this movie keeps that struggle at bay and doesn’t really show the emotional repercussions of it on the characters. For a movie that’s main focus is on marriage, it doesn’t show enough of one. It also doesn’t show us why the characters love each other, or why there is this blind trust between them. It’s another case of telling us there’s love without showing it.
Overall, this movie wasn’t bad. The dialogue was entertaining and the mystery was consistently engaging. However, an overabundance of characters left an emotional disconnect with not enough time to really bond to any specific one. I’d rate this movie 2.5 out of 5 stars. Exactly down the middle. Transparently, spy/espionage movies are generally not a type of movie that I typically enjoy. If you’re a fan of the genre, then I do recommend going to see it, as I have a feeling you’ll really enjoy what this movie brings to the genre!
