Michael Fassbender is Michael Caine in Smiley's People

Ms. Spenser likes le-Carre-style spy thrillers, and I like Steven Soderbergh, so I picked up Black Bag (2025). It was very much that, on several levels. 

It stars Michael Fassbender as a legendary spy owrking out of London. We see him visiting a Soho club to meet a connection. He has one week to find out who stole the McGuffin. After getting his info, he tells the guy to go back to his wife and maybe stop cheating on her. He says he wishes it wasn't so easy to cheat - just tell them it's "black bag", and you can't talk about it. 

Fassbender is planning a nice dinner at home for four of his colleagues. He tells his wife, Cate Blanchett, that he is going to use the dinner to see if he can figure out if one of the guests is a traitor. he doesn't mention that Blanchett is also one of the suspects. At the dinner, he mentions that he can always tell if someone is lying. 

I'll skip the machinations fort the rest of the movie. This is not an action movie, so we mostly see discussions and meetings. Blanchett looks more and more likely as a suspect, but Fassbender isn't fooled. The movie ends with another dinner, this time, with a gun on the table. 

So I've skipped all the suppotting cast, because I didn't know any of them (except Naomie Harris, whp plays a psychologist). I. skipped almost all the plot because I don't remember it well, and probably didn't understand it at the time. At some point, I decided this was a bit of a deconstruction or parody of a spy thriller, and decided to just go with it. I don't think that is really true, but it is a stylized, heightened version. In some ways, I was reminded of Soderbrgh's Haywire, with the chill EDM score and twisty betrayals. 

But the best parts of the movie were the two leads. Fassbender wears heavy black-rimmed glasses like Michael Caine, and acted like George Smiley - mild, mannered, ans sharp as a scalpel. Blanchett was glamorous, with long blonde hair and nice frocks, but with a little less to do. The directing was fine, starting with a long tracking shot that must be a tribute to Goodfellas. I don't remember anything flashy like that in the rest of the film.

So, I had fun and Ms. Spenser kind of wants to see it again. Mission: successful.