‘Black Bag’ interrogates love and trust as a covert operation
“Work or social?” asks a guest entering a house, not entirely sure the tone of the evening. “Yes,” the host responds.
How blurry things can get when mixing business and pleasure, internal and external. I don’t know if real intelligence operatives struggle with commitment and infidelity and lies, so many lies possible when any uncertainty can be brushed off with the off-limits magic code words “black bag.” But if anyone’s going to make a hushed and neatly elegant 90-minute drama about relationships at peak security clearance, director Steven Soderbergh (“Side Effects,” “Contagion”) and writer David Koepp (“Kimi,” “Premium Rush”) are a more than worthy pair.
George (Michael Fassbender of “The Killer”) and Kathryn (Cate Blanchett) have attracted the envy of their friends and colleagues, resisting any “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” possibilities and somehow converting life-and-death international deception into a loving and loyal marriage. Freddie (Tom Burke) and Clarissa (Marisa Abela of “Back to Black”) harbor resentments and much more; James (Rege-Jean Page) and Zoe (Naomie Harris) have little between them and don’t seem to expect their pairing to make it past this sentence. So when a mysterious mission/item/MacGuffin appears to have been stolen, Kathryn looking like the prime suspect may or may not mean anything in terms of everyone’s relationship with everyone. So few people, so many possibilities! Even with George’s supposed mastery of polygraphs dangled and promised and, yes, delivered.
Ultimately “Black Bag” is about a bit less than it seems, even if periodically you might shout “Whoa, slow down!” at the rapid-fire exchanges about agendas and blackmail and affairs and meltdowns. There could be more about the actual foundation of a successful partnership beyond just the simultaneous intrigue and problems caused by secrecy and suggestion, and the visual metaphor of going fishing is a bit on the nose in several respects. But if the cast and writing/directing team brought you in, you sure as hell won’t want to leave this intense yet lightly comic discussion of sex, lies and surveillance. The banter’s juicy; the delivery’s restrained; the movie, quiet and resistant to the grand theatrics of conventional cinematic espionage, nearly threatens to drip down your chin.
More seductive than smart, “Black Bag” is a classy diversion about how every relationship finds a certain rhythm, and the bizarre ability for a word like “traitor” to apply in wildly different contexts. It’s a finely tuned trip worth taking, no matter how manipulative and deadly the voyage.
B
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