Michael Fassbender stars in this dreary spy thriller from director Steven Soderbergh as a government agent who is given one week to flush out a traitor in the organization. He must proceed with caution when he learns that one of the suspects is none other than his wife (Cate Blanchett), who is also a spy in the same bureau. He eventually comes to the conclusion that they are both pawns in a larger scheme.
For a movie about a husband suspecting his wife of treason, there doesn’t seem to be much immediacy to the situation and there’s very little suspense to boot. Soderbergh’s cold and detached handling of the material doesn’t do it any favors either as the film is a sterile and often joyless experience. There’s something to be said for a spy picture with a dry sense of humor about it, but Black Bag is humorless and downright arid most of the time.
It’s a shame Black Bag is such a dud because the pairing of Fassbender and Blanchett had potential. They are thrilling to watch separately in other films. While they have flashes of chemistry here and there; they never really connect with each other or the audience. That’s more the fault of the script than anything as the flick is often a slow moving, lumbering slog. The supporting cast including Rege-Jean Page and Naomie Harriis do what they can, but most of them never speak above a stern whisper. It is cool seeing James Bond himself, Pierce Brosnan as Fassbender’s boss though, even if he’s not given much to work with.
From Jurassic Park to Snake Eyes to Spider-Man, David Koepp’s scripts are usually crackling good, but this one is strangely inert and uninvolving. Soderbergh gives the film a muted visual palate that is reminiscent of ‘70s thrillers. The finished product comes off looking rather drab and unmemorable, much like the film itself. Soderbergh and Koepp also collaborated on the ghost flick Presence (which was almost as blah as this one) the same year.
Fassbender gets the best line of the movie while giving an associate a polygraph tests and asks her, “Will you please release your sphincter muscle?”
No comments:
Post a Comment