Black Bag

Summary

“It’s been a while since we had a traitor to dinner.”

Steven Soderbergh is an interesting director. Since his triumphant Palme D’Or win at Cannes Film Festival for sex, lies, and videotape in 1989, Soderbergh has carved out a career that has seen him direct small scale independent projects and large scale ensemble blockbusters. It has been an interesting path that is marked by some exceptional films, and by some less successful efforts, but his choices have never felt boring to me. For his latest effort, Soderbergh focused his talents on directing a spy film written by David Koepp. David Koepp wrote the screenplay for the first Mission: Impossible film amongst many other pictures I admire, so I was happy to see what the pairing of their talents would create. Black Bag has a great ensemble cast with Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett in lead roles alongside Pierce Brosnan, Tom Burke, Regé-Jean Page, Naomie Harris, and Marisa Abela. With a cast that solid, and great talent behind the camera and typewriter, this film should have seemed like a low-risk investment for Universal. That actually was not the case. Budgeted at roughly $50 million, the film only did $42.5 million at the box office. I think this is largely due to the fact that Black Bag is not a particularly action packed film. In fact, there is very little violence in the picture. This is a film that mostly focuses on the dialogue spoken by the characters and the subtle actions they perform. This is a spy film that is more in line with a John le Carré thriller than a Jack Ryan or James Bond vehicle. As a fan of nuanced spy thrillers, I had a great time viewing the picture the other night on Universal’s well produced 4K UHD release.

In London, on a Friday, George Woodhouse (Fassbender) walks into a club and makes his way downstairs. He meets with a fellow agent named Meacham. They step outside and Meacham hands him a list of five potential traitors. One name on the list belongs to his wife, Kathryn St. Jean (Cate Blanchett.) George asks for two weeks. When Meacham explains that the stolen “Severus” could kill a number of people, George drops his request to just a week. That Sunday, George invites two agents – Freddie Smalls and Col. James Stokes (Tom Burke and Regé Jean-Page,)- a data analyst named Clarissa Dubose (Marissa Abela,) and company psychiatrist Dr. Zoe Vaughan (Naomie Harris) to dine at his home with himself and his wife. Freddie is dating Clarissa, and Zoe is dating James. George warns his wife to avoid the marsala, because it has a healthy dose of truth serum within it. The invitees, minus George and Kathryn, meet prior to the dinner at a pub. They find it somewhat suspicious that they would be invited to their home with only a twenty four hour notice. James has recently been given a promotion by George over Freddy, and there are hard feelings about it. At the dinner, Freddy reveals that George actually had spied on his own father and revealed his indiscretions, which directly led to his father’s divorce and suicide. As they dine, George starts a game with his dinner guests where they must name a resolution to adopt for the person to their right. This begins his investigation of his colleagues to find the traitor. When Agent Meacham dies, George’s investigation becomes more intense.

I really enjoyed Black Bag. Talkative spy thrillers are a genre that I love, and this is a very good example of that genre done well. The script by David Koepp is very well written. The twists in the plot all make sense and the finale is extremely satisfying and well earned. The film showcases all of the actors involved and Soderbergh directs the picture with a seeming effortlessness that gives the film a cool sheen. Michael Fassbender is great as the precise and methodical George, and Cate Blanchett is every bit his equal as Kathryn. They have excellent chemistry onscreen. Tom Burke first impressed me in Nicolas Winding-Refn’s Only God Forgives, and he is fantastic in the role of Freddie. Regé Jean-Page is an actor that was given a lot of exposure from Bridgerton, but I had not watched that show. I was very impressed with his performance. Naomie Harris is dynamite as Zoe, and Marissa Abela is also very good in her role. Pierce Brosnan also shows up in the film as an upper level intelligence operator, and he lights up the screen. The cinematography by Soderbergh is dynamic and has a few very well orchestrated long takes. The compositions by David Holmes add to the suspense.

Black Bag is not going to blow away folks who want their spy thrillers to feature a high body count, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I highly recommend checking it out if you skipped it.

Video

The 4K presentation of Black Bag is beyond reproach. Presented in 2.39:1 with HDR10 and Dolby Vision, there is not much room for improvement in terms of the presentation of the film. The picture was shot in 8K resolution on a RED V Raptor, the film was digitally mastered in 4K. To my eyes, it looked essentially perfect viewed from my 4K projector. Fine detail is exceptional and it looks exactly how Soderbergh wanted it to look.

Audio

Like the video presentation, the DTS-HD MA 5.1 track is very solid. David Holmes’s score adds the right amount of suspense to the picture and is very effectively used. This film is largely dialogue based, but the surround track feels immersive. That immersion is first set up in the long take of George meeting with Meacham. I have no complaints here. 

 Supplements:

• Deleted Scenes 
• The Company of Talent 
• Designing Black Bag 

Overall Scores:

Video: 5

Audio: 4.5

Special Features: 2.5

Overall – 4.5/5

Black Bag is a strong spy thriller from Steven Soderbergh that relies upon dialogue and nuance more-so than a body count to create its thrills. I love this genre, so I am somewhat predisposed to pictures such as this, but I thought this was a great example of the genre. David Koepp is a very talented screenwriter and his script delivers strong character development and an involving finale in under two hours. The ensemble cast is exceptional. Overall, I throughly enjoyed this film and would be happy to watch it again soon. The Universal 4K features fantastic technical specs. The special features are somewhat light, but this release comes highly recommended.

The film can be purchased at www.moviezyng.com.