Dir. Tony Gilroy, US, 2009, 125 mins
Cast: Clive Owen, Julia Roberts, Tom Wilkinson
Review by Carol Allen
Director Gilroy, writer of the acclaimed Bourne trilogy, got well-deserved Oscar nominations for both writing and directing with his directorial debut film Michael Clayton. After that Duplicity , which he's also written, is a bit of a disappointment.
It's a glossy tale of the romance between two spies. Five years before the main action of the story, when Claire (Roberts) was in the CIA and Ray (Owen) was with MI6, she did a Mata Hari on him, seducing him and then stitching him up. When they meet again they've both now switched their skills to the more lucrative world of industrial espionage, where two rival companies led by Dick Garsick (Paul Giamatti) and Howard Tully (Wilkinson) are locked in corporate warfare with the prize being a secret formula worth millions. The passion between Claire and Ray resurfaces and they join forces to try to snaffle the prize for themselves. But after a lifetime of being loners who trust no-one, can they trust each other? Or is cupidity more powerful for them than Cupid?
It's a good looking film with some slick shooting and editing, effective use of split screen techniques, which give it a pacey feel and a Bond like whistlestop tour of the world's most glamorous locations. The "who's conning whom" nature of the plot makes it somewhat impenetrable and it's rather overloaded with revelatory flashbacks that are a bit tricky to get one's head round, though all does become clear at the end in a beautifully shot, ironic final sequence. But the details of what rival businessmen Giamatti and Wilkinson are up to go past in a bit of a blur of fast editing.
The disappointment comes from the relationship between Owen and Roberts. Their initial antipathy towards each other is very convincing but there's a distinct lack of sexual chemistry between them. The story has the feel of a romantic comedy but there's virtually no wit and sparkle in their scenes, so one is left to conclude that Gilroy intends this as a serious drama. The only laughs are rather inappropriate ones, when the film's elaborate double and treble cross plot verges on the ridiculous, as in a scene when Ray adopts the persona of a paediatrician from Tennessee with a very dodgy accent in order to extract some information. He is though still appropriately sexy. Roberts however has lost the girlish prettiness and charm, which made her so endearing. She is now a mature woman in her forties and fits more easily into roles with a bit more weight and character, as in Charlie Wilson's War . This role feels like it was written for a rather younger woman and calls for a much lighter touch.
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