‘Black Bag’ review: Fassbender, Blanchett spy up a storm for Steven Soderbergh

Dir: Steven Soderbergh. US. 2025. 94mins 

Steven Soderbergh’s icy spy thriller is populated by expert operatives working at the top of their game — an appropriate milieu for a director whose cool intelligence and stellar craft are always a highlight of his pictures. Black Bag stars Michael Fassbender as a seasoned British agent who fears his wife (Cate Blanchett), a fellow agent, may be double-crossing their government. But his investigation opens the door to other possible suspects as Soderbergh ratchets up the suspense and deploys one clever twist after another.

Stylish and smart

Black Bag comes to UK and US theatres on March 14, only a couple of months after Soderbergh’s psychological horror Presence, which has grossed approximately $9.1 million worldwide to date (and premiered at Sundance in 2024). His latest is a much more star-studded affair, with Blanchett and Fassbender joined by Tom Burke, Rege-Jean Page, Naomie Harris, Pierce Brosnan and Marisa Abela. Stylish and smart, Black Bag ought to attract strong reviews and solid grosses.

Set in London and spanning the course of about 10 days, the picture introduces us to George (Fassbender), a high-ranking spy who learns that there is a mole inside his agency, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). Like George Smiley in his Tinker Tailor time, George is clandestinely given the name of five operatives who could be the mole — including his wife, the well-respected Kathryn (Blanchett) — and asked to do some digging to determine who the culprit is. Doubtful that she could betray her country, George informs Kathryn of the accusation, inviting the four other suspects – spies Freddie (Burke) and James (Page), psychiatrist Zoe (Harris) and new recruit Clarissa (Abela) – to a dinner party at their home, without revealing his motives. Over the next week, George will try to pinpoint the mole, while hoping that his faith in his wife is not misplaced.

In recent years, Soderbergh has jumped from genre to genre with each new project, displaying a playfulness as he immerses himself in, say, the claustrophobic horror of Unsane or the crime-thriller trappings of No Sudden Move. But the Oscar-winning director’s enthusiasm for these disparate styles has not always translated into fully satisfying experiences. Black Bag is a happy exception. Highly entertaining from start to finish, the film benefits from David Koepp’s inventive screenplay and Soderbergh’s storytelling swagger.

Fassbender and Blanchett make for a riveting married couple, their duplicitous line of work adding intrigue and spark to their relationship. George and Kathryn’s foreplay involves flirty interrogations — “Would you kill for me?” “Would you ever lie to me?” — and Black Bag has enormous fun with the fact that, as much as they love one another, they cannot entirely trust each other. Blanchett radiates chilly reserve, her dark eyes instantly sizing up anyone she encounters, while Fassbender exudes the same poised detachment he wielded in David Fincher’s The Killer. The actors are dangerously seductive as George starts to believe that his wife could be masterminding a plot within the agency.

Not that Black Bag ever lets us feel certain who the mole is. After a captivating, lengthy dinner-party opening sequence in which we get to know the five suspects — specifically, Freddie’s romantic infidelity, Zoe’s kinks and James’ ambition — George begins the meticulous process of looking for clues. But as soon as George thinks he might be on the right path, a surprising turn of events changes his mind, and unexpectedly places him in the crosshairs of the  investigation.

The characters talk in dazzlingly dense jargon, the back-and-forth dialogue always snappy, even if we only understand the bare bones of what is taking place. And the ensemble is never overwhelmed by the production’s sleek, witty tone. (Costume designer Ellen Mirojnick dresses these characters in stunning suits and gorgeous nightwear.) Instead, the actors play their roles with stiff-upper-lip professionalism in keeping with career spies who know the fate of the nation hangs in the balance.

Once again serving as his own editor, under his usual pseudonym Mary Ann Bernard, Soderbergh delivers a punchy thriller that runs to only 90 minutes — and features just one explosion and one fired gun. And yet Black Bag electrifies, all the while evincing a sly sense of humour about, among other things, the difficulty of making love last when you know your partner is hiding secrets. Soderbergh also seems to be having a chuckle casting Brosnan, the former 007, as the agency’s gruff boss — not to mention bringing aboard Harris, that franchise’s most recent Moneypenny. Black Bag offers none of the blockbuster escapism of a James Bond picture, but when Soderbergh is working with this level of confidence and control, he’s just as lethal.