March 21, 2024 – This slick, cool, cerebral thriller about a man tasked with finding a mole in a high tech spy service clearly wears the stylish mark of director Steven Soderbergh (“Side Effects” and the “Ocean's” series).

Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett star as the husband and wife British intelligence team of George Woodhouse and Kathryn St. Jean. George's boss, Philip Meacham (Gustaf Skarsgård of “Oppenheimer”) tells him there is a traitor in their midst and assigns him the task of finding out who it is. He is given a list of suspects, and Kathryn's name is on it.

In addition to the usual spy craft story elements of murders, double-crosses, triple-crosses and nuclear secrets, this one adds a famous Agatha Christie plot element as well. George invites all the suspects to a dinner party and closely observes everyone, looking for clues.

The central mystery in the story surrounds a rogue Russian in possession of software that can induce meltdowns in nuclear reactors. George uncovers a plot to use this software to destabilize the Russian regime. This scheme has the earmarks of a dangerous rogue operation within the British intelligence community itself. Comparing notes, George and Kathryn discover they are being set up to take the fall for this plot.

George and Kathryn decide to stir things up and foil the plot, hoping to force the conspirators into the open. Part of the plot is to once again invite all the suspects to a party to play a deadly game. George also gives lie detector tests to the suspects, where he finds out that one of the suspects, satellite imagery specialist Clarissa Dubose (Marisa Abela of “Back to Black”) is able to fool the test, and she doesn't mind at all that George knows that she has this skill.

Clarissa's spy boyfriend, Freddie Smalls (Tom Burke of “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga”) has a weakness for drinking too much and for telling too many secrets to his psychiatrist, and secret lover, Dr. Zoe Vaughan (Naomie Harris of “No Time to Die”). The very complicated plot to destabilize the Russian government and lay the blame on George and Kathryn requires intimate knowledge of everyone involved and what they are doing at a certain key moment down to the second.

Fassbender and Blanchett are well cast in this film. Fassbender once again channels his smart, cool, calculated, buttoned-down character, similar to ones he's played before in “The Killer” and “Prometheus.” This kind of cool spy character has been around in movies a long time. I am reminded of Michael Cain's character Harry Palmer in “The Ipcress File” (1965).

This is a very slick movie, well-written by David Koepp (“Premium Rush”) and directed by Steven Soderbergh, who is also listed as the movie's editor and director of photography. This film rates a B.

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