Black Bag (15)
Directed by Steven Soderbergh

 
AFTER his unnerving, supernatural horror Presence the ever-prolific Steven Soderbergh is back with a riveting old fashion and sleek political spy thriller steeped in paranoia and deceit. 
 
Soderbergh, who directed, shot and edited it, teamed up with screenwriter David Koepp for the third time to deliver a whip smart and hugely gripping drama full of crackling dialogue and featuring a sizzling stellar cast who all bring their A game. 
 
The film follows George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender), a top British intelligence officer, who is handed a list of five possible moles in the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). His beloved wife Kathryn (Cate Blanchett), another elite operative, is one of them. 
 
He invites all the suspects, who are all friends and colleagues, to dinner to ferret out the traitor before they can activate a destructive cyber worm called Severus similar to the infamous Stuxnet. No one is able to lie to him.  
 
“I don’t like liars,” he tells them as they embark on an elaborate game in a mesmerising 12-minute-long dinner scene which could be straight out of a play and which proves a masterclass in acting. Tom Burke as the womanising hard-drinking bad boy agent, Marisa Abela (Back to Black) as his lover and a young operative, Naomie Harris as the staff psychiatrist, and Bridgerton’s Rege-Jean Page as Colonel James Stokes all hold their own opposite Fassbender and the fabulous Blanchett. Former 007 Pierce Brosnan rounds off the illustrious cast as their boss.
 
Fassbender, whose character is a cross between George Smiley and Michael Caine’s Harry Palmer, delivers a powerful and minimalist performance as George keeps his cards and his emotions close to his chest. Opposite him Blanchett is a class act, oozing intrigue and sophistication.
 
At times reminiscent of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf — and channelling both John le Carre and Agatha Christie — this is a slick and stylish spy thriller which also explores the complexities of marriage. It begs the question: where do your loyalties lie? With your country or with your spouse? As Blanchett admits: “My devotion to my marriage is my professional weakness.” Both George and Kathryn reveal they would literally kill for each other, and so this fascinating plot, full of twists and political machinations, thickens.
 
Soderbergh is back on form with this deliciously dark and twisted spy caper. Just great fun. 

In cinemas March 14