George and Kathryn Woodhouse are married British spies who work in the same office, throwing George’s life into disarray when he learns that his wife is suspected of betraying the nation. Forced to carry out a clandestine operation to discover the truth, George works his way through other possible suspects in his office while hoping to clear his wife.
Buy Black Bag 4K UHDSteven Soderbergh directs from a script by veteran writer David Koepp, teaming up again months after this year’s widely ignored low-budget thriller, Presence. Koepp seems to be emulating the le Carré literary brand of spywork rather than Fleming, with the spooks little more than office drones going about their daily grind rather than engaging in international intrigue and action in the field. There are shades of Slow Horses office politics, but also Agatha Christie parlor whodunits, with the film’s pivotal scenes occurring not once but twice around the Woodhouse family dinner table.
If you’re looking for a breezy, globetrotting spy action thriller, this isn’t it. Instead, Koepp focuses on the inherent paranoia of a team of longtime associate spies forced to contend with the possibility of a traitor in their midst. Soderbergh manages to keep the tension fairly high in spite of the absence of action scenes, allowing space for each of the supporting actors to flesh out their intriguing characters as they attempt to outmaneuver each other in their quest for the truth. While it’s great to have a serious, cerebral spy flick for adults, it is an overly verbose chamber drama of a film that barely sustains its brisk 1 ½ hour runtime.
Fassbender is wound so tightly here that he’s more automaton than human, hitting his marks with emotionless opaqueness. He’s so overboard with his uptight, straight-arrow portrayal that his character feels inauthentic, as anyone so inhuman would surely crack from the prolonged pressure of maintaining such freakishly insular intensity. Conversely, Blanchett is a relaxed lioness, with wise, feral energy on display in even the most mundane of situations, making her character’s longtime marital pairing with Fassbender’s dowdy nerd fairly inexplicable. She makes a wholly believable veteran spy, while Fassbender seems more ready for a cubicle in Office Space. Other supporting players provide fine subterfuge as we try to guess the villain, including Regé-Jean Page, Naomie Harris (stuck in spy games again after playing James Bond’s modern-day Moneypenny), and a spunky, scene-stealing turn by Marisa Abela (star of Back to Black).
The 4K disc is presented in UHD HDR10, with Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio. The included Blu-ray carries the same audio option, and a digital copy is also included. Although the movie was shot digitally, it seems to have been processed to look like film, with noticeable grain and a distinct lack of motion smoothness. Combined with the film’s understated color spectrum, heavy on drab earth tones and bland office/home lighting, there’s little benefit to be had by UHD, but the 4K resolution provides a crisply detailed presentation. The 5.1 sound is more than adequate for the dialogue-heavy production, with the subwoofer barely getting used aside from a brief explosion and seconds of gunfire.
The bonus features mostly consist of uninspired marketing babble, with the cast members taking turns praising each other and Soderbergh without offering any meaningful insight into the production process. A couple of deleted scenes expand the story a tad, and a design overview shows the expansive set construction of the Woodhouse home, but the overall bonus selection is underwhelming.
Although it’s far from perfect, the film largely delivers on its promise of smart adult spy drama. Soderbergh proves to be adept in yet another genre, and Blanchett is a joy to behold. Aided by a strong supporting cast and a suitably twisty story, this bag is full of satisfying tricks.
