Black Bag

 

This review may contain spoilers!

Black Bag is a spy thriller about George and Kathryn, a couple who work for the Intelligence agency MI6. When it comes to light that Kathryn might be a traitor to the nation, George takes it upon himself to find the truth.

I really liked the second half of Black Bag quite a bit, this is a film that works itself well when the mystery is given a bit of gas. When things start speeding up and the mystery is given the focus it deserves, things become far more engaging. George is a very clinical and detached protagonist, I almost suspected him to be bland at first. But with time the film really shows how such a calculating personality handles the rug being pulled out from under him, the moments in which he loses and how he recovers. The fact this film made it more of a personal frantic struggle for George and Kathryn in the back half makes it easier to care from an audience perspective. I also loved the polygraph scene, that is the best scene of the film by a mile. It is a moment that ramps us up to the final reveal, weaving a montage of intense scrutiny and wit in equal measure.

Steven Soderbergh's films are often visually stunning and all have decent variety to them too. Black Bag is no different. Black Bag has a distinct orange and blue colour palette that filters this into a tasteful attempt to evoke the classics in the spy genre. I also found David Holmes' score to really creep up on you, it gets progressively more anxious and off the wall as the film moves along.

Michael Fassbender, who played George Woodhouse, is quite an unusual and interesting lead role; Fassbender plays a very neutral and calculating figure who is driven by an unwavering sense of love and loyalty. Tom Burke, who played Freddie Smalls, is one of the funnier characters in the film; Burke is quite quick with his delivery and dabbles into a sour attitude that belies his true self. Naomie Harris, who played Dr. Zoe Vaughan, really makes so much of this film her own; Harris feels like she is walking an emotional tightrope so carefully from start to finish in what was an incredible display of skill.

However, the best performance came from Marisa Abela, who played Clarissa Dubose. Among a host of veteran performers, Abela stands out quite a bit. This is a young Intelligence technician with a very sharp tongue, she is a fiery spirit and mischievous in equal measure. From the first scene she is introduced as the younger partner to an older man in the Intelligence field, she is seen as a new flame of sorts. But she is quick on her retorts and not one to really be trifled with. In the face of being mistreated, she is very retaliatory against her partner, shifting to a random and impressive display of violence. Abela crafts a wholly toxic individual, someone who seeks to cheat outside of her relationship and who doesn't play by the rules very well. Abela also plays to a more professional environment well, delivering a very believable scene in which she plays the technician component of her role. Watching Clarissa in the polygraph scene was one of the very best parts. Abela is a cut above in this film and I cannot wait to see her in another project.

I spent a lot of Black Bag thinking David Koepp probably heard the term 'Black Bag' for the first time and hounded for a loose concept in which to use it, any old way would do. The convoluted concept behind these interlocking relationships with such a gross abuse of position felt unrealistic, nothing about these character relationships really resembled anything real. It's a massive focus of the film but it's not something that represents our cast of characters very well. I found it very difficult to like this cast at first too, the characters are all very conceited and arrogant. Black Bag is a bit of a snobby film, not very well aided by the ridiculous dialogue at play. The way characters talk isn't really how people speak, resulting in this heightened narrative that I struggled to find a way into. The film also gets a bit cartoonish the moment you learn what the big conspiracy is all about and what MI6 is afraid of; a moment that really undercuts a lot of what is working up until then.

The editing on Black Bag really plods along, it feels tired and it can linger on a frame for far too long. The soundtrack is a nightmarish mish-mash of classical pieces and modern soft pop music, so scattered that it doesn't feel very considered.

Gustaf Skarsgård, who played Philip Meacham, is a very restrained performance; Skarsgård is quite on the periphery playing a role that really doesn't make a lot of sense in the grand scheme of the narrative. Cate Blanchett, who played Kathryn St. Jean, really surprised me by giving a pretty simple attempt at a sultry spy; Blanchett was someone I expected to bounce back after Borderlands but she seems to have lost her way. Regé-Jean Page, who played Col. James Stokes, used to be an actor of intrigue and can now barely play to a plot twist; Page really just jumps from monotony to exaggerated anger and little else. Pierce Brosnan, who played Arthur Stieglitz, is perhaps the most outlandish character and performance in the cast; Brosnan is a seasoned actor so it was hard to believe he could deliver dialogue so cartoonishly.

For masters of the craft, Soderbergh and Koepp deliver a presentable if not stale spy thriller. I would give Black Bag a 6/10.