Starring Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender, Marisa Abela, Tom Burke, Noamie Harri, Regé-Jean Page and Perce Brosnan

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Universal, in cinemas now

George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) is a British intelligence agent. Precise, methodical, impossible to lie to, George is a devoted agent and a devoted husband to Kathryn (Cate Blanchett). When he’s tasked to find a missing weapon code-named Severus, George discovers there are five suspects. Colleague and sometime friend Freddie Smalls (Tom Burke), rising star Colonel James Stokes (Regé-Jean Page), Signals Intelligence specialist Clarissa DuBose (Marisa Abela), psychiatrist Doctor Zoe Vaughan (Naomie Harris) and Kathryn…

This is so much fun, of the darkest, cleanest sort. Fassbender is always good as buttoned down, intensely clenched men and George stalks through the movie like an Oxbridge Harry Palmer, all angles and determination. It’s a great performance, one that’s both minimalist and roiling with emotion and we see that come out in very controlled circumstances in his scenes with Blanchett. The movie has been criticised, justifiably, for giving her very little to do and for the first two acts that’s true. But that’s also the point. She’s George’s ideal, the paragon and centre of his life. As that begins to crack, so does he and the movie’s tension is derived almost entirely from these two immaculately tailored predators stalking around each other, trying to work out whether to kiss or kill or both. That’s what makes the third act so intensely refreshing. Without giving you any spoilers, this is that rarest of treats: a movie where smart people make smart choices and it pays off. Blanchett’s best work is in that third act and while it still may not be enough the movie is even better for it.

With these two titans front and centre you could be forgiven for overlooking the rest of the cast. Don’t. From the moment they’re introduced grabbing pre dinner drinks, Buke, Harris, Page and Abela constantly threaten to steal the show. Burke’s exhausted, crumpled lothario feels like he’s fallen out of a Le Carré Cold War novel. Page’s buttoned down career spy is venomously competent and furious about it, a River Cartwright with better luck and worse interpersonal skills. Harris’ psychiatrist is the closest the movie has to a genuinely decent human being and even she’s a ball of spikey, bitter energy. But the breakout is Abela as Clarissa. Unrecognisable from her turn as Amy Winehouse, she plays Clarissa as a woman with absolute self-knowledge of her damage who finds total strength in that. She knows they’re all broken people in a broken business but she knows the extent of how broken she is and that’s enough. Most of the time.

Verdict: Suave, immaculately tailored and ready to murder at a moment’s notice, Black Bag is a rom com with a gun under the table and a spy thriller with added heart. It’s one of the best movies I’ve seen this year so far. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart