Duplicity (2009) Reviews

• enjoyable yet confounding

  techcrw4212009-03-20

  As with any spy film, a certain amount of complexity in the script is to be expected. However this spy film adds on plot twists, flash backs, back stabbing and double agents with so much frequency that it left me scratching my head by its end. As an on screen team Julia Roberts and Clive Owen work well together but even their performances were drowned out by the sheer complexity of the script. There are also welcome surprises from the supporting cast, each of whom seemed to have their fair share of witty dialogue. Ultimately the movie is less about a romance between rival spies, and is more about keeping its audience wondering just how the plot can twist next. As the final credits role one looming question remains: "What happened here?" even complex spy thrillers such as "Mission Impossible" had some kind of wrap up at its end that cleared up any lingering doubt or questions and we were happier for it. 'Duplicity' is a fun little spy film, with some fine performances by Roberts and Owen and plenty of well written dialogue, but it is brought down by the overly complex plot and I fear will leave even fans of the genre feeling slightly numb when the credits role.

• Even Owen and Roberts couldn't save this confusing and mind boggling mess

  mexicospidergreen2009-04-11

  Two corporate spies (Owen & Roberts) hook up (after knowing each other a while back) to pull off a scheme to get 40 Million dollars. The mission is to infiltrate a company that each other work in, and expose a secret product the company is releasing. Soon things get out of plan, and the two spies realize they have more feelings for each other than they recently thought. I've been a fan of Clive Owen ever since Children of Men, and I was so gratified to see Julia Roberts back on the screen. A few years ago both Clive and Julia did a movie together called "Closer", and it was satisfying to see them back together again. Their performances together are the only uplifting value of this film. Although we could have used more of Paul Giamatti and definitely more Tom Wilkinson, the entire cast was perfect for this film. This movie had too much potential in the first half, but after that it becomes a confusing and mind boggling mess of a movie. There were so many twists, and confused story telling even I heard some of the audience members yell out "Huh? What was that about?" The script was good, but the story was horribly told that it came to a very disappointing outcome. That's a shame because I was expecting to enjoy a good suspense movie that wasn't confusing. Duplicity is a often funny and well acted movie, but you'll have to find either the film's director or the screenwriter to translate the story for you, or else you won't get it. It surprisingly turns romantic in the end which makes it a fairly good date movie, but you'll be more confused than dazzled. I have to say skip this movie, and if you want to see Julia Roberts at her best rent Erin Brockovich. If you want to see Clive Owen at his best rent Inside Man. Need I say more?

• Conned

  gary-4442009-03-24

  I was lured to see this on the promise of a smart, witty slice of old fashioned fun and intrigue - I was conned. A knowing, pretentious, tedious, overlong story which suffocates under its own artifice. Starring Julia Roberts ( Claire Stenwick) ,and Clive Owen (Ray Koval), as "Duplicitous" spies, the film tries to recreate the glitter, froth and intrigue of roles made famous by the likes of Cary Grant in the 1950's, yet fails under leaden direction and total lack of chemistry between the leads. Director "Michael Clayton" Tony Gilroy also has writing credits for The Bourne series, so his credentials are excellent. But Clive Owen seems ill at ease as a romantic, witty lead apparently yearning for the opportunity to play the more robust part he played in the under rated "International". Julia Roberts shines in one of her better performances, offering more than her obvious glamour but without the quality of script to enable her to truly excel. She seems barely bothered about enticing Owen into bed, and the word play between them consistently falls flat. An extensive travelogue incorporating London, Rome, New York, Dubai and Geneva provides some scenic interest, as these erstwhile CIA and MI6 spies swap political espionage for industrial espionage turning into criminal espionage. At 126 minutes it is at least 35 minutes too long. Sharper editing, greater pace, and less "flab" might have made this a better picture. But we are left with it as it is, an instantly disposable, and forgettable addition to the respective parties film credits.

• Ban flashbacks, please!

  sschimel2009-03-29

  Well. This movie has only one thing going for it and that's the charm of Clive Owens. But it's hard to believe that the genius behind Michael Clayton had anything to do with this. The writing is horrible, and at 2 1/2 hours, it's too long by about, um, 2 1/2 hours. It's aiming for Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, but fails on all counts. And I hate to say it, but I think Julia Roberts has been very ill-served by the make up artists and costumers on this movies. And I really think that Hollywood needs to call a moratorium on flashbacks as a major plot device. The movie seems to consist entirely of flashbacks, many of which involve the same lines of dialogue, which turn out to be a script devised by the main characters. the flashbacks, crosses, and double crosses make your head hurt if you think about them too much.

• Slick But Shallow Fluff

  zardoz-132009-03-25

  Oscar-nominated "Michael Clayton" writer & director Tony Gilroy serves audiences a soufflé of sorts in the shallow new Julia Roberts & Clive Owen romantic comedy about jet-setting, globe-trotting corporate spies. Roberts and Owen, who previously co-starred in Mike Nichols' drama "Closer" (2004), keep turning the tables on each other. They love one another so much that they don't trust each other. Ultimately, however, they have the tables turned on them. Mind you, this should come as no surprise to anybody who suffers through this predictable, 125-minute, PG-13 rated comedy of errors. Sadly, "Duplicity" strives to be too smart for its own good, and everything collapses like a soufflé amid Gilroy's Machiavellian plotting. In a way, "Duplicity" imitates last year's assassination thriller "Vantage Point," but it substitutes crisp verbal repartee for crackling violence. The action in this lively industrial espionage epic occurs in splintered chronological spirals that create more confusion than they clear up. Meaning, time jumps around so erratically that you may get lost along the way. The clean-scrubbed charismatic principals generate a lot of chemistry, but they keep having the same conversations in different settings around the world. Indeed, "Duplicity" is not the kind of movie you can follow if you are either sending text messages or get hung up in a line at the concession stand. You'll come back in lost, and your date will have a devil of a time summarizing what you didn't see. After a while, "Duplicity" becomes annoying, even if it boasts splendid photography, scenic settings, and slick editing. Claire Stenwick (Julia Roberts of "Charlie Wilson's War") is a seasoned CIA agent, and Ray Koval (Clive Owen of "Sin City") is her cloak & dagger counterpart at British MI-6. Wait a minute, who's going to accept Julia Roberts as a CIA agent? Well, since "Duplicity" is a comedy, okay. The role fits Owen like a glove, however, but then he was in the running once to play James Bond. Conversely, Roberts looks like she ought to be selling Tupperware. The action opens five years in the past when Claire and Koval meet for the first time at the American Consulate during a Fourth of July party in Dubai,one of the United Arab Emirates. Koval picks her up, but she outwits him and steals top-secret Egyptian air defense codes that he had stashed under the box springs of his mattress. Actually, naughty little Claire drugged unsuspecting Koval, and he hasn't recovered from her audacity. He catches up with Claire five years later in New York City's Grand Central Station, but she acts like she doesn't remember him. Since their initial encounter in Dubai, our protagonists have retired from international intrigue and have become agents in industrial intrigue. "Duplicity" concerns the cutthroat competition between two multinational corporations, Equikrom and Burkett & Randle, and they are determined to corner world markets. In fact, they worry more about what the other is doing than what they ought to be doing. Think of them as the fictional equivalents of Pepsi-Cola versus Coca-Cola, but they manufacture everything from soap to medical products. Claire and Koval decide to exploit this feud for their own gain. They go to work for Equikrom. Koval serves as her supervisor, while she goes undercover as a mole into Burkett & Randle. The problem is that neither Claire nor Koval evoke any interest as characters. They constantly spar with each other, but they have no more depth than Gilroy's giddy dialogue. You know a movie is in trouble when the supporting characters prove far more provocative than the primary characters. Equikrom's devious leprechaun like CEO Dick Garsik (Paul Giamatti of "Shoot'em Up") and Burkett & Randall's head honcho Howard Tully (Tom Wilkinson of "Michael Clayton") are rivals to the death. Gilroy shows how much they abhor each other over the slow-motion title credits. They meet on the tarmac at an airport and tangle like wrestlers while their staffs watch in horror. When he learns about a fabled new product Burkett & Randall are about to unveil, Garsik launches a full-scale espionage compaign with Claire and Koval to find out what it is. "Duplicity" is Julia Roberts' first starring role since the woebegone "Mona Lisa Smile" in 2003. She looks sparkling but terribly miscast. The real scene stealers are Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson. Carrie Preston has some memorable moments as a gullible travel agent that our hero in disguise seduces to gain access to a Burkett & Randall building. The use of multiple flashbacks obliterates any coherence in a movie that should have been as light and dry as a martini. Clearly, Gilroy—who has written better movies such as "Dolores Claiborne" (1995) and the Matt Damon "Bourne" spy trilogy—tries to conceal the absence of substance by swirling past and present timelines. In the end, "Duplicity" is a harmless but loquacious exercise in silliness that contains none of the violence of the Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie spy comedy "Mr. & Mrs. Smith." The hero and heroine wind up in bed a couple of times for amoral premarital sex, but nudity is confined to an out-of-focus glimpse of a bare-breasted Roberts. Profanity is held to a half-dozen words, so there is nothing really offensive on hand. "Dark Knight" composer James Newton Howard's orchestral score infuses "Duplicity" more energy than anything Roberts and Owen pull off as a pair. The eleventh hour revelation about the product that Burkett & Randal is manufacturing proves rather lame. Happily, "Duplicity" is the kind of movie that you'll forget in no time.