In 1998, Out of Sight delivered one of the greatest reminders since the Hays Code era that a movie doesn't need to be explicit to be sexy. Almost 30 years later, Steven Soderbergh delivers another such reminder with his new spy thriller Black Bag.
While the film is undeniably an exciting and high stakes spy thriller with the lives and deaths of millions in the balance, it's primarily a fantastic ensemble relationship drama. The film's central pair, SIS agents George (Michael Fassbender) and Kathryn (Cate Blanchett) have been together for more than a decade and regularly affirm their loyalty to one another over their nation. Fellow agents Freddie (Tom Burke) and James (Regé-Jean Page), cybersecurity specialist Clarissa (Marisa Abela), and therapist Zoe (Naomie Harris) aren't as stable in their relationships.
Early on, our key players are invited to a dinner party at George and Kathryn's after George is informed that one of them, including Kathryn, may have stolen the film's MacGuffin, a flash drive that can cause nuclear reactor meltdowns. We learn Freddie and Clarissa have been together for over a year while Zoe and James just started seeing each other.
But Zoe talks openly about her sexual engagement with James not lasting long and all present are quickly brought in on the not-so-secret secret that Freddie's regularly infidelious. It's an equally squirm and guffaw-inducing scene that sets the tone for the film's horny, hilarious, and downright riveting cat and mouse game that's more interested in its characters' dynamics than the fate of the world.
Harris and a later-introduced Pierce Brosnan as a high ranking agent register as Bond-reference stunt casting, but the closest the film comes to one of that spy's bombastic action set pieces is a single small explosion. Instead, the unadulterated thrills in Black Bag come in the form of dinner parties, rowboat outings on ponds, and a bravura polygraph scene.
The rapidly alternating questions of state security and sexual partners during the polygraph deftly maintain the balance between driving the thriller plot forward and diving into each characters' psychology. Soderbergh (as Mary Ann Bernard) edits the scene within an inch of its life, repeatedly cutting between close ups of characters' hands and aggressive Dutch angle shots of their faces while George's questions go uninterrupted.
That hyperstylization extends to the look and sound of the film as well. It opens with an extended, behind the back oner homage to Goodfellas' Copacabana sequence as George walks through moodily lit alleyways and makes his way downstairs into a club before returning outdoors with a fellow spy. That moody nighttime lighting is sharply contrasted with blown out images of George and Kathryn's white countertopped kitchen and Zoe's floor to ceiling windowed office, all while Soderbergh's regular collaborator David Holmes delivers yet another perfectly laid back and jaunty score that keeps things moving without ever overplaying or undercutting the drama.
It is drama that's wonderfully brought to life by the talented cast and expertly scripted by David Koepp. From the smallest twitches of nervousness to outright threats of violence, every actor is at the top of their game and Koepp gives them all multiple quips that are just as cutting as they are funny.
Burke in particular stands out during the first dinner party scene. But it's Fassbender and Blanchett who are always the stars of the show. Other characters comment on their seeming lack of humanity and their almost disturbing devotion to one another but it never feels like Black Bag is telling rather than showing. We see how cool under pressure the central pair are, how they plainly lay their cards on the table when they need to, and just how far they're willing to go for one another, even when doubt creeps in.
Viewers will never doubt that they're in the hands of a master, as Black Bag is another home run from one of our finest filmmakers. And yes, while his Magic Mike films certainly offer joyous titillation, there's a beauty in making one of the sexiest movies in years without a sex scene in sight.
The film opens Friday, March 14, only in movie theaters, via Focus Features. Visit the official site for locations and showtimes.
