Intelligent, slick and fun, Steven Soderbergh's new spy thriller BLACK BAG is a shiny blend of Jason Bourne intrigue and an Agatha Christie whodunit.
David Koepp (Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds, Mission Impossible) delivers his best script in years, a taut & hilarious, triple crossing tale of secrets told by an amazing cast.
Michael Fassbender (Prometheus, Inglorious Basterds) stars as the fastidious, always truthful agent George Woodhouse. The man loves gourmet cooking and hates liars. He is obsessively disciplined and fiercely protective of his wife and fellow agent Kathryn St. Jean.
Kathryn, perfectly cast in the lithe form of Cate Blanchett (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Blue Jasmine) has come under suspicion as a possible traitor. She's the most obvious suspect when it comes to the theft of Severus, one of those spy thriller plot devices that's more important as an object that for what it actually does.
Everyone wants Severus back and George has decided that one of five people have stolen it. Unfortunately, one of those people is his wife and the evidence continues to point to her.
George invites the four other possible traitors to dinner at he and Kathryn's stunning home in London. Spy work must really pay well, the flat is jaw dropping and the perfect setting for what follows.
Rege-Jean Page is Colonel James Stokes, George's trusted confidant and one hell of an operative. By the way, after this role, Rege-Jean leaps into a tie for me as the next James Bond alongside Aaron Taylor-Johnson. The dude is smooth and there were several scenes in the film that felt 100% OO7, he oozes the right devious charm to be Ian Fleming's agent.
Of course it's easy to think Bond when Stokes's partner for the dinner is the agency psychologist Dr. Zoe Vaughn, played by Naomie Harris, the best Moneypenny ever in the Bond films, with all due respect to the OG, Lois Maxwell. Dr. Vaughn seems to be observing everything at the dinner with the same intensity as George.
Across the table is young agent Clarisa Dubose (Marisa Abela) who is in love with the brash, blunt, crude older agent Freddie Smalls, entertainingly played by Tom Burke (Furiosa, Mank).
George has spiced up the curry with a few dashes of truth serum, leading to the most explosive dinner scene since "August: Osage County". Koepp and Soderbergh craft a smart through-line between comedy, tension and intrigue as the meal spills plenty of truth telling.
In the days that follow, each of these characters interact across London and the Globe. Watching over them all is the service's top man, Arthur Stieglitz, played with relish by Pierce Brosnan. Pierce is in top form as a grumpy power player whose agents may be better than him at his game. He's terrific and as far from Bond here as you can get.
The film was also edited and photographed by Soderbergh, using pseudonyms in the credits for those roles. It looks fantastic. He fills every frame with exotic European locations, bars, back alleys and those benches in public squares where the most secret details of all are quietly exchanged.
David Holmes (Ocean's Eleven, Out of Sight) crafts a throwback music score that feels like a Lalo Schifrin score lifted out of a seventies thriller. It's modern and propulsive without ever being intrusive. Great work & atmosphere from Holmes.
When I mentioned Bourne in the opening paragraph, note that I'm referring to the complicated, enjoyable intrigue that always elevated the Bourne films, especially Paul Greengrass' films. I'm not referring to action. There's very little real action in BLACK BAG, but there are two films worth of suspense, mystery and great dialogue inside.
The cast is great across the board, with Fassbender and Blanchett setting a standard that everyone meets. When Soderbergh throws in another dinner sequence at George & Kathryn's to close the film and reveal all, I felt like Hercule Poirot or Benoit Blanc were about to walk through the door and reveal all.
As one of our most prolific American directors, Soderbergh continues to deliver high quality films across the full spectrum of genres.
BLACK BAG twists and turns it's clever way to an A.
"I dont like liars....."
Comments