Black Bag (8/10)

by Tony Medley

93 minutes

R

With an All-Star cast headed by Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender, Steven Soderbergh directs a convoluted script by David Koepp about an insular group of horny spies who sleep around and don’t trust one another.

There really isn’t much plot to speak of. George Woodhouse (Fassbender) is an elite member of the spy unit of the British National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). He’s assigned to find a mole and given five names, four colleagues and a fifth, Kathryn (Blanchett), his wife. His boss, Arthur Stieglitz, who appears later in the film, is played by none other than Pierce Brosnan, who played James Bond in days gone by. Unfortunately, Brosnan’s appearance is little more than a cameo. Even so, his fine performance adds a bit of gravitas to the proceedings.

George is hopelessly devoted to Kathryn, even though he knows she is sexually unrestrained. While that is the meager plot, this is basically a tale of personalities and how they cope with each other and their jobs, and it’s a good one.

It starts with George and all the suspects having a dinner party, at which George begins his manipulation with a cruel game. He goes around the table, revealing at the outset the entangling physical and emotional alliances and disturbances within the group.

Because of all the difficult relationships and the genre of their profession, the idea of telling lies as the main part of their lives makes trusting relationships difficult. The way George and Kathryn manage theirs is to put their confidential activities into a “black bag,” ergo the title.

What proceeds is mind-numbingly arcane. I found the goings-on challenging to follow. When the film ended, I asked the critic sitting next to me if she followed it. She laughed and said yes, revealing by her attitude that the film was, at least, complex, requiring a lot of thought.

The cinematography (Peter Andrews aka Steven Soderbergh) is so outstanding that it could have been made in black and white. Maybe it should have been. In fact, when I think back on it, I remember it in black and white.

Even though it is almost esoterically mysterious, it is captivatingly enticing. While one wonders what in the world is going on, one is captured by the smart script and fine acting to find out. In a normal Hollywood time of yore, this would be a surefire Oscar® nominee. In today’s world, that’s unlikely.

Tony Medley is an attorney, columnist, and MPAA-accredited film critic whose reviews and articles may be read in several newspapers and at rottentomatoes.com, CWEB.com, robinhoodnews.com, Movie Review Query Engine (mrqe.com), and at www.tonymedley.com. A former sports editor of the UCLA Daily Bruin, he is the author of four books, UCLA Basketball:The Real Story, Sweaty Palms: The Neglected Art of Being Interviewed, the first book ever written on the interview for the interviewee, having sold over a half million copies, and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Bridge, which has sold over 100,000 copies, and Learn to Play Bridge Like a Boss. He is an American Contract Bridge League RubyLife Master and an ACBL accredited director. He is a Mensa Life Member and a member of the International Society of Philosophic Research, ISPE (“The Thousand”).

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