Michael Fassbender is a British spy hoping to identify an agency mole who may, in fact, be his own wife (Cate Blanchett) in a thriller from Steven Soderbergh.

Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett play married espionage operatives in the director’s smart, fast-paced film.

Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett successfully slink through Steven Soderbergh's knotty, funny thriller Black Bag.

A scene involving George’s clandestine surveillance of Kathryn during a satellite handover is still a tense affair that has a literal countdown clock in play. But what makes the Black Bag difference is the fact that SigInt expert/bad girl Clarissa (Marissa Abela) also uses the opportunity to attempt to flirt with her older co-worker.

Continuing to prove that retirement is not just overrated, but a real impediment to an artist’s best work, in “Black Bag,” Steven Soderbergh dashes off a sleek little genre exercise — a doodle really,

By JAKE COYLE If you’re hosting a dinner for half a dozen British intelligence agents with the aim of ferreting out a mole, what should you cook? For George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender),

Kick it up by half a star if your tastes run to John le Carré espionage thrillers crossed with marital cage matches like “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Dock it the same amount if you don’t like talky,

Steven Soderbergh's genre exercise is both fun and deeply layered with larger existential themes, making for a delightful romantic spy drama that can't be missed.