Black Bag

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

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In a “Less is more” exercise Steven Soderbergh teams up with screenwriter David Koepp in another film “Black Bag.” This one highlights the James Bond realm. It is tense, spare, and claustrophobic.

George (Michael Fassbender) is a cold-hearted spy married to Kathryn (Cate Blanchett) who is equally icy. It comes to his attention that a member of the agency is being traitorous. George’s wife is on the list.

The film has solid innuendo dialogue and terrific one-upmanship between them. George and Kathryn are both sociopathic. Yet in domestic life they act the part of a conventional couple.

George insists on a dinner party to root out the mole among them. A series of insults follow. There is a sycophantic agent (Tom Burke), a psychiatrist (Naomie Harris), a bureaucratic type (Rege-Jean Page), and a neophyte (Marisa Abela). They turn on one another like wolves and perversely George and Kathryn get excited. Cate Blanchett is half Diana Rigg and half Morticia Addams and she holds the screen as powerfully as Catherine Deneuve in a Polanski thriller.

The fun comes from watching the ice flow between the sly married couple. The film is not big on gunplay, but the repartee is as sharp as a razor. Eyes, lipstick, and perfume have never been more menacing.

Like origami with sable edges, this is a deeper and more satisfying kind of “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” film, speaking to the true feline furtive qualities of what espionage might be like. What unfolds is a riveting 93 minutes that curiously enthralls and expands far beyond its minimalist storyline to reveal a dark heart.

Write Ian at ianfree11@yahoo.com