Spy spouses face a potential breach of trust

Familiarity breeds contempt, maybe especially in marriages. How do you keep a close partnership fresh? Perhaps married spies, like the ones in Steven Soderbergh's silky spy caper Black Bag, have the answer.

- STEPHANIE ZACHAREK

George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender), an experienced operative at Britain's National Cyber Security Centre, receives a list of five colleagues who are suspected of being moles, capable of activating a cyberworm designed to wreak nuclear havoc. No problem there—except his wife, fellow high-level spy Kathryn St. Jean (Cate Blanchett), to whom he's devoted, is on the list. The trust between these two is unshakable; George isn't too worried. His first move is to invite the other four suspects to the couple's house for dinner, the better to ferret out the traitor. "Avoid the chana masala," he casually informs his preternaturally self-possessed wife as she slips into a column of liquid charmeuse before the guests arrive. He's dosed that particular dish with truth serum, the better to get tongues flapping around the dinner table.