Sex, Lies and Espionage

Black Bag | Director: Steven Soderbergh | Cast: Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender

W hat do you do when a film looks as chic as a Dior commercial? Where its actors have cheekbones sharp enough to launch planes—only private jets of course. And where every sentence has a layer of meaning that has to be unravelled slowly? Well, you drop your guard and watch. Watch Michael Fassbender watch Cate Blanchett, who is watching Fassbender. Both are spies, work for the National Cyber Security Centre in London, and are married to each other. But it appears that Blanchett’s character could be a traitor and who better than her husband to expose her? She engages in some enigmatic activi­ties that set the ground for suspicion. There is a cat and mouse game afoot but there is too much beauty on screen and it is dis­tracting—Marisa Abela and Regé-Jean Page deserve little films of their own, as does Pierce Brosnan, the head of the centre. Steven Soderbergh seems to be in a hurry to make films but here he seems to have delib­erately slowed himself down. The result is an exquisitely paced, sensuous-looking movie which delivers in every department.

Black BagCate Blanchettcinemafilm reviewMichael Fassbender