With a taste for films that feature a deteriorating marriage – Anatomy of a Fall (2023) and The Night (1961), to name a few – Steven Soderbergh’s new spy-thriller Black Bag (2025), a film about two married agents after a mole who might turn out to be one of them, had its appeal. After attending its preview screening at Cameo Picturehouse, I’ve gathered a few insights into what you can expect from the film.
At its core, Black Bag is a spy drama. George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) is tasked with discovering who leaked an important security device to the Russians. Among the five suspects is his own wife Kathryn (Cate Blanchett). To flush out the traitor, the couple hosts a dinner party for the suspects: Clarissa (Marisa Abela), Zoe (Naomie Harris), James (Regé-Jean Page) and Freddie (Tom Burke). The actors give subtle but telling performances, playing into classic spy-thriller tropes. If you’re a regular audience of the genre, you might find yourself piecing together the hints before the reveal.
The more compelling way to enjoy the film would be to immerse yourself in the chemistry between the characters. The recurring dinner-table conversations laced with tension and humour boil down to sex, lies, and…a gun. The characters navigate the blurred lines between their personal and professional lives, balancing intimacy and duty without resorting to clichés—there are no overblown emotional breakdowns that undermine their cynical, highly intelligent personas. Instead, the suspense lies in George and Kathryn’s absurdly trusting relationship, set against the backdrop of their absurdly cinematic home.
Much of the comedy comes from Clarissa. On paper, they seem unfunny and poorly written, but Marisa Abela’s charismatic delivery of those lines in a slick back ponytail and a fitted suit had me thinking – I’d laugh at anything she says.
“Michael Fassbender” by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.