Black Bag

There are two types of spy films. Bracket them into ‘Ian Fleming vs. John Le Carre’ if you will.

The all-action, in-the-field, slightly unrealistic action spies vs. the more cerebral, realistic, office-based espionage.

Despite featuring actual Bond alumni (Pierce Brosnan, Naomie Harris) and some bookies' favourite potential future Bonds (Michael Fassbender, Rege Jean-Page) the new film from Steven Soderbergh: Black Bag falls into the latter camp.

Nothing wrong with that at all. And, as you’d expect from Soderbergh and writer David Koepp, this is a concise, slick, stylish and smart spy thriller.

However, as can be the case with certain films of this type, the machinations of its plot and the intricacies of its execution are just a little bit too complicated.

It strikes as a film that knows it's smart and isn’t prepared to offer a helping hand to the viewer.

I’m sure there are some spy fans who will lap this up but, for the average audience, it’s all just a little bit too hard to follow, a little too unnecessarily convoluted and the denouement might raise more shrugs than gasps.

Getting to that denouement is mostly fun though. The slightly hazy, almost 1970’s-styled cinematography, the costume design and the zippy dialogue can enrapture at points.

The stacked cast hit their marks and the runtime is kept down to a brisk hour-and-a-half.

The lack of action set pieces feels mature and refreshing and an early dinner party scene is rapt with tension.

However, as aforementioned, the plot just wraps itself in knots a little too much and some of the points of the plan fall into the ‘awfully convenient and far-fetched’ category.

Perhaps one that may work better on the page than the screen, Black Bag is nonetheless perfect spy mystery fodder for those inclined, but possibly a little too dense for the majority.

⭐️⭐️⭐️