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As a contemplation of the post-Bond English spy thriller, Steven Soderbergh's "Black Bag" rings some familiar bells. The protagonist, George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender), is a quietly devious London spymaster with a problematic wife, rather like George Smiley in John le Carre's Karla novels and the movies made from them. And Woodhouse's culinary expertise in the kitchen recalls the foodie inclinations of Harry Palmer, the similarly bespectacled '60s spy played by Michael Caine in films like "The Ipcress File."

What sets "Black Bag" apart from those earlier movies is George's impassioned devotion to his wife, Kathryn (Cate Blanchett), who bears no resemblance whatever to Smiley's flagrantly unfaithful spouse, Ann. In fact, the mutual devotion that Kathryn and her husband share is the real subject of the movie. Like George, Kathryn is also employed in British cyber intelligence -- although in her case as a top field agent, flying around Europe putting out espionage fires while her husband monitors the big picture back in London.

One night, in a noisy club, George is handed a list of five fellow agents, of whom it is thought that one is a traitor. If this person should lay hands on a deadly new cyber-MacGuffin called Severus ... well, that can't be allowed to happen, George is told. Agency supremo Arthur Stieglitz (onetime Bond star Pierce Brosnan) assigns George to make sure it doesn't. "Give me two weeks," George says. "Thousands of innocent people will die," Arthur warns him. "OK, one week," says George.

George quickly devises a plan, inviting all of the suspect agents to a specially spiced dinner at the elegant townhouse he shares with Kathryn. The guests include Zoe Vaughan (Naomie Harris), an agency shrink, and a hot young operative named Stokes (Rege-Jean Page), with whom Zoe is sleeping. Also at the table are a new recruit named Clarissa (Marisa Abela) and her much older colleague/boyfriend Freddie (Tom Burke), a boozy mess by his own admission. And then there's Kathryn herself -- who George is distressed to learn is also a suspect.

George is straightforward about his professional arrangement with Kathryn: "I watch her; I assume she watches me," he says. "It's the only way." Whenever their connubial conversations threaten to stray into classified territory, one of them can simply utter the words "black bag," and no further discussion will be pursued. Still, suspicions sometimes arise. When George is told about a mysterious bank account in Zurich containing 7 million pounds, and then learns that Kathryn has booked a trip to the Swiss city, he feels the stirrings of alarm. He also arranges one of those computer eavesdropping operations that enables him to effortlessly observe and listen in on Kathryn's activities from 500 miles away.

Soderbergh's compact late-career films, which he usually shoots and edits as well as directs, have a lithe, breezy spirit. And in veteran screenwriter David Koepp, who also scripted his last film, "Presence" -- released only seven weeks ago -- he has a simpatico collaborator, one with the same low-key vibe. People brought up on old-school spy movies, with their garish villains and endless set-piece action scenes, might find this film a little underweight, with not enough going on to steadily compel a viewer's interest. There are quiet compensations, though. And the talk helps.

"I would do anything for you," George tells Kathryn. "Would you lie?" she asks. He thinks for a millisecond. "Not to you," he says.

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To find out more about Kurt Loder and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at www.creators.com.

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