Last month, Steven Soderbergh set out to bore me silly with a ghost tale. This month, it’s a completely different story: Steven Soderbergh set out to bore me silly with a spy thriller. Luckily, it didn’t take. I was engaged throughout, even when I found Black Bag incomprehensible.
George (Michael Fassbender) and Kathryn (Cate Blanchett) are a married spy couple. I imagine that’s more common than one normally might guess – I mean, who else are spies gonna marry? And who else would understand, “I’m going to be home late; don’t wait up?” Despite the high-powered spy gig, George is as loyal as husbands get. Uh oh. What happens when his wife is on a shit list?
George, btw, is sort of an Internal Affairs spy. He’s dogged, he’s true blue, and he spots lies instantly. And he’s just been handed a short list of potential traitors. Kathryn is on it.
So what does he do? He invites the entire list to a dinner party at his flat where they play the (I paraphrase) “What sucks about the guy on my right?” game. It’s a hoot! It ends in a hand stabbing. Did we learn who is selling out British intelligence? No! But hand stabbing!
And then he finds a movie ticket stub in the wastebasket to a film his wife claims not to have seen. Uh oh. Is it Kathryn? Who else could it be? The weirdest thing about this coupling 
is that -in the film- Fassbender genuinely looks older than Blanchett. In reality, he’s 47 and she’s 55. I’m sure it’s a combination of makeup and movie magic, but still. This was the biggest mystery Black Bag offered me.
Black Bag is verbose and involved. It reminded me a great deal of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, except maybe a Cliff Notes version. Like Soderbergh’s last film, Presence, it’s shorter than you’d expect, if drifts more than you’d hope, but it has a dynamite ending. Unlike Presence, I’m recommending this one.
An undercover spy in British intel
Has to find which traitor will sell
Could be his wife
Would you bet on your life?
That anniversary celebration would go swell
Rated R, 93 Minutes
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Writer: David Koepp
Genre: Highbrow
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Thinkers
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Action junkies
