BLACK BAG is a corporate espionage thriller that drips suspicion.

Director Steven Soderbergh delivers a high-stakes thriller that blurs the line between ambition and deception and where love and loyalty collide. 

Cleverly written by David Koepp, this keeps you guessing right through to the end.

Imagine being married to George (Michael Fassbender), a spy watching everything you do, second guessing every conversation, every glance and every revelation. 

However, you are also a spy, watching him. Do you really know and trust each other. 

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George is a British intelligent agent assigned a deeply personal mission unmasking a traitor within the agency. 

The catch is that his own wife Kathryn (Cate Blanchett ) is the prime suspect. 

While Kathryn, an agent of many years in NCIS, describes her devotion to her marriage as her professional weakness, is this just a smokescreen? 

The intrigue is not just wrapped around this couple but a stellar cast of agents and psychologists led by Arthur Steiglitz (Pierce Brosnan). 

The staff private dinner party reveals surprising confessions and double crossing where the line between truth and deception is as thin as a coded message.

While overall the film reeks of 1950’s Stasi spies and is a little dark graphically, don’t expect Mission Impossible, high-octane action sequences. It is more dialogue driven and demands concentration, where the real action happens in the minds of the characters rather than physical confrontations.

An enjoyable film that  is an excellent set-up;  marriage, espionage and betrayal all tangled together. 

4/5 chickens

by PAULA HOLLAND