Director Steven Soderbergh is teasing audiences with the casting of his new film, Black Bag. The spy thriller stars Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender as married intelligence agents George and Kathryn Woodhouse, alongside Regé-Jean Page, Pierce Brosnan and Naomie Harris.
Brosnan is best known for his portrayal of James Bond in four films from 1995–2002, Harris played Eve Moneypenny in the Bond films Skyfall (2012), Spectre (2015), and No Time to Die (2021) and Page is a rumored contender to take over the 007 role from Daniel Craig.
But you won’t find much Bondian-style action in Black Bag. It’s more of a psychologic thriller set in the world of espionage, with nearly all the action amongst the agents themselves.
What’s at stake is not only finding a mole within the U.K.’s National Cybersecurity Centre but the sanctity of the Woodhouse marriage itself, because Kathryn herself is one of the suspects and her husband is tasked with leading the investigation.
He decides to start off the probe with a dinner party at their home with all the other suspects as guests. The tension builds as it is clear that Mr. Woodhouse has an insane amount of intel on each one of them.
The lengthy scene is taught and dynamic with the camera moving between the characters quickly, giving the viewer a sense of uneasy excitement.
David Koepp began developing the screenplay, with the theme of marriage being the ultimate trust institution, while he was working on the first Mission Impossible film about 30 years ago.
The film does not give us much info about the couple’s back story but it is clear that they have a very strong attachment to each other and an unbreakable bond, while the viewer is left to wonder how much wool one is pulling over the other’s eyes.
It’s outrightly stated that among the spies, what others don’t need to know goes into a metaphorical “black bag.” So when Kathryn’s schedule takes her on a quick out of town trip, Woodhouse goes in the hyperdrive and involves one of the other spies in some highly illegal actions to trace her activities, which are caught on camera.
It’s Fassbender’s second time recently portraying a spy, as he also plays a hardened CIA agent working in London on Paramount+’s The Agency.
Spy couples are a movie and TV staple – think Mr. and Mrs. Smith and The Americans for starters– and there are other couplings in Black Bag that also play a key role in the intrigue, leading to some surprising revelations.
Viewers are left to wonder about the quantifiable difference between secrets and lies which dominate the relationships.
