George Woodhouse is a top ranking Secret Intelligence Officer, who is ordered by his supervisor to find which SIS operative has stolen a software program called Severus, which if used correctly can cause nuclear meltdowns to kill tens of thousands.
There are five suspects;
- Clarissa, the satellite technician
- Freddie, her boyfriend and managing agent, who has been having an affair with a mysterious woman,
- James, the newly appointed Major, who secured a promotion over Freddie,
- Zoe, the in house psychiatrist, who is in a relationship with James, and
- Kathryn, a highly regarded Intelligence officer… and George’s wife.
Direction
A more mature direction from Steven Soderbergh than we are used to.
It is more slow paced, but with his usual ‘cuts’ within the same scene, but different angle – which is quite prominent in the opening dinner party scene.
Cast/Characters
Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett get equal top billing as George and Kathryn. Both ooze their own maturity of their own, with two distinctly impressive caricatures, of not only a couple who have been married for decades, but as intelligence agents.
The supporting cast are all equally as impressive, with Rege-Jean Page and Naomi Harris playing James and Zoe respectively. Harris has some good back and forth between Blanchett and Page. Page gets more to do than Harris does, especially in the back half of the film.
Tom Burke is solid as Freddie, who has a mixture of both confidence and assertiveness in his ‘work-life’ but shows his breaking point in his personal life.
It is however Marisa Abela’s Clarissa who will break your heart. Her moments with George, where she almost breaks down when she discusses ‘relationships’ in their line of work, and never able to know about trust due to “black bag”.
Pierce Brosnan plays the big boss of the SIS agents. He is great as the almost grotesque Stieglitz, getting to don some less than flattering makeup. He plays a polar opposite character than he’s used to from his James Bond days.
Screenplay/Setting/Themes
This is a very dialogue heavy film, which is more to do with character/narrative than it is action. There is really only two scenes that have any ‘action’. Both barely last a few seconds.
What we are subject to is more of a ‘cat and mouse’ game between the seven individuals, who are each intertwined with one another in some way. This is either by affairs, or playing each other, or trying to cajole with each other, or turn on one another.
The opening dinner scene, in which George tries to ‘read’ the group happens too early in the film. We have not been introduced to these people yet. If this scene had happened half an hour in, once we know them somewhat, it would have had more impact.
I would have liked to have seen more of George’s obsessive nature occur too, as he is shown to be overtly meticulous in every aspect of his life. At one point when he is cooking, he splashes sauce on the cuff of his sleeve, and must change.
Score/Soundtrack
Frequent collaborator with Soderbergh is David Holmes, whose score here feels somewhat similar to his Ocean’s Eleven theme.
There were also good uses of diegetic sound, during some of the long conversational moments.
Overall
Definitely a passable film, but it is a movie that will make you think (perhaps a little too much) during it.
Solid performances, especially from Blanchett, Fassbender and Bronson, but it is Abela who gets my MVP.
3.5/5
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