Movie Review: Black Bag (2025)

Genre: Spy Drama  

Director: Steven Soderbergh  

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett, Naomie Harris, Pierce Brosnan, Marisa Abela  

Running Time: 94 minutes  

Synopsis: British counterintelligence officer George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) has to find out which intelligence team member sold a top secret cybersecurity weapon to enemy agents. One of the suspects is George's own wife Kathryn (Cate Blanchett), the head of the signals division. Other possible traitors include up-and-comer James (Regé-Jean Page), satellite imagery specialist Clarissa (Marisa Abela), staff psychiatrist Zoe (Naomie Harris), and case officer Freddie (Tom Burke). George has to safeguard his marriage while deploying mind games and state-of-the-art surveillance to uncover the culprit.

What Works Well: An amalgamation of John le Carré and Harry Palmer with a dash of the Smiths, this is a mostly grim but sometimes wry spy whodunnit. Michael Fassbender elegantly channels Michael Caine and creates in George Woodhouse a cold-as-ice agent who made his legend destroying his own father (deservedly so). He now faces a moment of truth with his wife, having to rely on deep reservoirs of trust to counteract mounting evidence of guilt. All the suspects are adept at playing spy games, and director Steven Soderbergh gets into a groove of simultaneously presenting and casting doubt on all the necessary details. 

What Does Not Work As Well: The tone awkwardly oscillates between serious and absurd, and the dialogue is more glib than thoughtful. For a group of supposedly clever spies, way too many of these characters are bedding each other and losing control of their emotions and libido. 

Key Quote:

Clarissa: When you can lie about everything, when you can deny everything, how do you tell the truth about anything?



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