Cast
- Actors: Michael Fassbender, Regé-Jean Page, Marisa Abela, Naomie Harris, Tom Burke, Pierce Brosnan Musical score: David Holmes
- Cinematography: Peter Andrews
- Producers: Casey Silver, Gregory Jacobs
- Running time: 93 Minutes
- Screenplay: David Koepp
- Director: Steven Soderbergh
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| Black Bag 2025 |
George Woodhouse (Oscar Nominee Michael Fassbender) is a spy who is extremely careful about his work and his ‘perfect’ relationship with his wife Kathryn (Oscar Winner Cate Blanchett). George maintains a strong disdain for lying people while being very cold and calculating in expressing his emotions. The problem comes when he is assigned to investigate, based on a list of names he receives, 5 people who apparently sold a program called Severus that could annihilate thousands of innocent people, and among that list appears the name of his wife.
It is not convenient to reveal much of what happens in this, the second collaboration (this year) of screenwriter David Koepp and Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh, whose good fortune smiles on them not only with “Presence” (2025) but also with this sophisticated espionage thriller that does not seek to unravel an ultra tangled plot to reach its climax, but appeals to the minimum of characters who are weaving their own web of lies/entanglements and at the same time drastic solutions.
Is there such a thing as a perfect relationship, can a couple sustain their relationship based on the faith they have in each other, and that's where George and Kathryn's sophisticated and intelligent dynamic comes from, reaching the point of seduction not only to their colleagues but also to the audience thanks to the acting work of Blanchett and Fassbender (a bit typecast in this type of role recently). The Goddess makes Fassbender's character uneasy with her every word despite his stiff demeanor. Soderbergh accentuates the couple's relationship with a lighting game that brings more elegance to the shot, from the intensity of being together to covering all the characters in dim lights and shadows, making it clear that they are all suspects, clarity in ideas and Kathryn's actions in daylight.
Special mention to the work of Tom Burke, Oscar Nominee Naomie Harris, Regé-Jean Page and Marisa Abela who become entangled in the murky game of marriage at the beginning with a dinner party, unraveling the deception and at the end discovering its real facets.
“Black Bag” (2025) marks the good filmic health of Soderbergh who is known for filming left and right in a short period of time and releasing immediately. Koeep hasn't had a script this good since (dare I write it) “Panic Room” (2002) or even “Spider-Man” (2002). It resolves easily and in one fell swoop, but it didn't need to expand any further; it's a great movie for grown-ups. Film of yesteryear? You might say.