Black Bag

"Black Bag is a spy film that has Steven Soderbergh’s signature all over it. Fun and witty, the film follows a spy (Michael Fassbender) who begins investigating the possibility of a traitor on his team—worse, that his own wife (Cate Blanchett), also a spy, is betraying the nation. From there, Soderbergh plays with the codes and elements of the spy genre to create humor, especially by turning Fassbender’s character into a relentless machine willing to do anything at any cost. It’s entertaining to see Soderbergh poking fun at his own ideas and filmmaking, particularly when he turns the espionage plot into a kind of couples therapy. Unfortunately, though, David Koepp’s script stumbles at the end, becoming overly didactic and making the film’s conclusion almost dull and monotonous. The cherry on top that Soderbergh seemed to have prepared is missing."