Black Bags

Black Bags is more of a suspense thriller than an action thriller. It deals with a bus trip and the mistake that occurs when two young women, one of them pregnant, exchange their black, identical suitcases, apparently unaware of the problem until they arrive at their respective destinations.

The pregnant young woman is called Tess (Olesya Rulin) and the other woman, somewhat older and also quite psychologically disturbed, is Sara (Laura Vandervoort). They had been talking during the trip and apparently had sympathized with each other. But when Tess discovers a drop of blood on the carpet she decides to open the suitcase and to her horror finds a human head torn from its body. So when Sara rings the doorbell to exchange suitcases, Tess only feels like running away and not seeing her because now she considers her a highly dangerous psychopathic killer.

The interesting thing about this low-budget film is that it reveals things as it goes along and in this way the situation that seemed accidental gradually takes on a more sinister tone until it reaches its outcome that ends up explaining the whole situation.

It is a great interaction of these dissimilar personalities, the apparently homely and pregnant woman and the distraught and somewhat irascible mysterious traveler who confesses to having a seriously ill daughter who needs a very expensive treatment to cure her. Laura Vandervoort, who is the actress best known for the TV series she acted in: Smallville, V and Bitten, V-Wars and some films such as Into the Blue 2, The Reef and Coffee Shop did a very good acting job as did her co-star Olesya Rulin. The low budget of the film is not an obstacle for the story and the acting of the two protagonists to be a highlight that elevates this film to the category of very interesting. At least in my humble opinion.

As this film opens we see a heavily pregnant woman, Tess, collecting essential medication. She then heads to the bus station, loads her luggage into the storage area before boarding. Another woman, whim an identical bag, boards and sits next to Tess. She introduces herself as Sara. When Tess disembarks at the terminus Sara is asleep. She takes her bag and returns to her remote house. Just as she is opening the bag the doorbell rings... it is Sara saying their luggage has been switched. When Tess goes to get the bag it falls open and she sees something shocking inside... something that suggests Sara may be very dangerous. She closes it and gives it back but it is clear Sara knows that Tess has seen the contents. Sara starts explaining things but can anything she says be believed?

I didn't really know what to expect when I started watching this and early on I expected to the disappointed. Opening scenes suggested something overly melodramatic with the 'wicked' Sara making a mistake that made no logical sense... i.e. Keeping the item in the case. However as the story progressed it started to get more interesting and unlikely details were mostly explained. There were some good twists and turns before a denouement that I didn't predicted until very close to the end. The film is almost entirely carried by its two leading ladies' Olesya Rulin and Laura Vandervoort really impressed as Tess and Sara respectively. There is less action than one might expect but there is still plenty of tension. Overall a solid enough psychological thriller; I'd recommend it to fans of the genre with ninety minutes to kill.

BLACK BAGS tells the story of two women whose fates are ostensibly intertwined by a switch-up of their luggage. There are many twists and turns in the story, so saying more would spoil the movie.

Although the switched luggage trope might seem like a meagre source for driving plots, the thrillers I know of which are based on it have turned out to be more or less good movies (or at least movies I liked), such as Roman Polanski's FRANTIC (1988), 8 HEADS IN A DUFFEL BAG (1997) and, though not a thriller but a classic nonetheless, WHAT's UP DOC (1972). BLACK BAGS joins this small group of good movies.

What impresses most in the movie is the acting by the two main characters, which is thoroughly believable and renders them real. Worse acting could have sunk this movie, since the story, though well-constructed, increasingly pulls on our suspension of disbelief. However, the quasi-philosophical questions about motherhood, and its relation to questions of good vs. Evil are raised in an organic way which make up for that, in my view

I also like that the movie deviates from the standard progression common in thrillers; the third act seems almost like a different kind of film, but nevertheless joins with what came before quite well, something which is not easy to pull off.

The direction, cinematography and editing were a little bland. I feel like there were opportunities for more tension and suspense which were missed. However, at no point was I bored and despite the criticism, these aspects of the move were definitely not bad.

The audience for this would consist of people who want to watch twisty indie thrillers with a greater-than-usual emphasis on fleshing out characters. Another such movie which is quite good, though not based on a switched luggage trope, is BULLITT COUNTY (2018).

This is a very forgettable movie about who knows what.

Flashbacks and time lapses have been overused since Tarantino became big, and he wasn't exactly great at it.

Here, we have two young women who board the same bus and accidentally get each other's bags.

Neither woman is likable. Both are brats in their own way, although one is the traditional rich kid and the other is just as bratty.

For instance, the girl who is supposed to be the caring one is a brat who judges some older woman on a bus and jumps all over her for absolutely no reason at all.

Well, one of them killed a guy in self defense, and in order to save herself, she had to cut the guy's head off, because he was crazed in an intent to kill her, so there's no problem with that.

It's the other motivation that are pure Hollywood, believe it or not. The directing and writing are pathetic. The dialog is fake and sounds like it was written by AI or something. People just don't speak like that.

It's too bad that it's a muddled mess. It probably could have been a good movie, but the characters that we're supposed to care for are too much the same self-righteous personae who only care about the "in crowd", bringing to mind the song in "Hair" where an actual needy woman deals with people like this.

Young girl is standing by a bus with a black bag, another young girl walks up to the same bus with an identical black bag. They both get on the bus. The bags both go into the same storage compartment, both girls begin a conversation on the bus , nothing comes of it. When the bus reaches their destination which happens to be the same stop, one girl is found asleep and the other gets off the bus and you guessed it, grabs the wrong bag. What happens next is a very interesting exchange of events that take the second girl down a path of strength as she learns how to navigate this most disturbing problem that has arisen by these two black bags. Good dialogue, great plot and twists , nothing questionable, no nudity, minimal foul language. A good watch. Worth the time. Enjoy!