Duplicity

Duplicity = Duplicitous fun

Espionage thrillers are old hat in the movie world, though they can still be a lot of fun. Some of them are done seriously as suspense thrillers. Some take a comic turn, making them caper comedies. Some manage to do both, like the 1992 film Sneakers.

So to be effective, especially since the Cold War is over, an espionage film needs to be either very well done, or have a different twist on things. This one is more the latter than the former, but the different twist makes it worth a look.

Imagine the typical espionage tropes transplanted from the political world to the corporate. That is what we have here.

A company called Burkett & Randle is one of the leaders in the personal-care-and-grooming industry, which is a multibillion dollar business... everything from soap and razors to shampoo and beauty products. Julia Roberts plays a woman called Claire, who works in their corporate security department. Herself a former CIA agent, she is now working in the group that makes sure the company's secrets stay secret.

Burkett & Randle's main rival in their business is another company called Equikrom. And the rivalry between the two companies has escalated into a corporate cold war, one in which each side would like nothing better than to destroy the other, or at least deal it a very large setback.

And that is what Claire is really doing. She is secretly in the employ of Equikrom, and has been planted into B&R as a mole, waiting for the right moment to do what she is really there for. And that moment is about to come, as B&R is getting ready to announce a new product that will revolutionize one part of its business and make it a gazillion dollars in the process. The people at B&R want to make sure that the secret formula for their new product will remain secret. And naturally, Equikrom wants it for themselves.

So Claire's superiors at Equikrom's corporate intelligence office activate Claire, and assign her a handler as her contact. The problem: Claire's new handler with Equikrom is Ray (Clive Owen, apparently channelling the spirit of Pierce Brosnan), a former MI-6 agent who Claire had an altercation with several years ago. This is all shown in the introductory scene, in which Ray tries to pick up Claire at a party at the US Consulate. She initially resists his advances, but eventually goes back to his hotel room... where she drugs him and steals secret documents from his briefcase before taking off.

Five years later, Claire has left the CIA behind. Naturally, she is less than thrilled at the choice of her new handler, who has joined Equikrom since she went deep undercover over at Burkett & Randle.

One could have told a similar story with the United States and Russia (or any other major rival) as the "companies" involved. But it wouldn't have been as much fun. Setting the story in the corporate world makes for a different spin on the old spy story. Especially when it becomes obvious that both Claire and Ray have their own agendas, which may or may not be compatible with each other. And speaking of compatibility, it becomes apparent that Claire and Ray are attracted to each other. To say any more would spoil things, so I will leave it at that.

What I will say is that there are twists and turns aplenty here, in keeping with the genre. It also overlays a romantic comedy into the fray, though that part may not be quite as successful as the main, corporate-espionage plot.

The end result is a delightful romp of a caper film, well played by the two leads as well as the supporting cast (which includes the likes of Tom Wilkinson, Paul Giamatti, and Carrie Preston). Things move smoothly, and while there are some unexpected (and often delightful) twists in the plot, they aren't too complicated to follow. As a lighthearted caper film, it's a lot of fun. As a romantic comedy, it's less so, but without that element something else would have had to drive some of the plot points, so I can excuse it.

Last updated: 2010-04-09 19:20:17 by Xenon

DUPLICITY

***
Two warring corporations (each with an irrepressible scenery-chewer at the helm) send Julia Roberts and Clive Owen in smug pursuit of a priceless formula and erotic charge across places like Dubai, Zurich, Rome and New York. Sex never looked so difficult. Someone had the rich idea to surname Roberts' high tech conwoman something that sounds like 'Stanwyck'. Ah, if only...

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Duplicity (Tony Gilroy, 2009)

***USA

Two warring corporations (each with an irrepressible scenery-chewer at the helm) send Julia Roberts and Clive Owen in smug pursuit of a priceless formula and erotic charge across places like Dubai, Zurich, Rome and New York. Sex never looked so difficult. Someone had the rich idea to surname Roberts' high tech conwoman something that sounds like 'Stanwyck'. Ah, if only...

Duplicity

Drama/Suspense, 2008 (Rated PG 13)Starring: Clive Owen, Julia Roberts, Paul Giamatti, Tom Wilkinson

Two government counterintelligence agents have a one night stand that leads to love. They make a plan to go into the private sector as counterintelligence agents in the world of corporate sales to scheme there way into a big score that will make then lots of money and ultimately enable them to retire in someplace like Rome.

• It was almost comical because the world of marketing and corporate sales had a full intelligence branch complete with private jets and surveillance teams. Is it really like that, but I just don't know it?
• I kept expecting an action scene or guns to be pulled out but then I had to realize that this is the world that creates cosmetic products not hostages.
• It was way too long.
• I didn't like it as much as I thought I would but it was OK.

3 Stars

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Just Me

Duplicity

I give the movie: 3.5/5

It's always nice to see a beloved actress grace the screens again - and the sight of Julia Roberts with her mega-watt smile more than makes anyone day. Although Duplicity revisits familiar genres (it'sOcean's meets Bourne), the competent actors do bring wit and freshness to the plate.

Roberts and Owen both play collaborating spies who conspire to con two rival mega-corporations. Their motive - to pit the two companies together and make-away with this secret recipe that could be worth millions.

With beautiful locales, biting dialogue and numerous plot twists, you'll either be thoroughly entertained or thrown-off by the storyline. Here's my piece of advice: don't think too much, just go along with the ride.

FINAL SAY: 

It's welcoming that a witty little flick can appear amidst the barrage of mega-blockbusters and mindless family stuff in the theatres. Get ready to laugh and be confused. But don't worry, you'll get it in the end.

Wilson Ng - http://wilsoniscurious.blogspot.com/

Last updated: 2010-03-14 00:07:49 by wilsoniscurious

Duplicity

In life, everyone is a victim of duplicity at some point. In the movie "Duplicity," the victim is everyone in the audience. The movie itself is a pathological liar, and a sloppy, unconvincing one at that.

For the first twenty minutes, the movie plays fair. Clive Owen is a British spy who spots a good-looking Julia Roberts at a soiree in Dubai. He charms her into his hotel room, where she drugs him and steals the classified documents he's hiding under his mattress. It turns out, she's a CIA agent who was secretly seducing him all along.

Okay?

Okay. We cut to twelve years later. Clive is now a corporate spy on his way to a secretive meeting with a fellow insider at a rival company. He meets the fellow insider and it's, surprise, Julia Roberts herself. They're both in the private sector now, and both working for the same company.

That's as much of the plot as I will describe because it is as much as I understand. What follows is a mish-mash of betrayals, reconciliations and further betrayals that make no sense whatsoever because the true motivations of every character in the movie are a closely-guarded secret.

The film-maker, Tony Gilbert, still glowing from the undeservedly good reception "Michael Clayton" received, has it in mind to fool the audience. He wants to completely bamboozle us. Knock us senseless. The way he accomplishes this is by having every character lie their way through the entire movie without giving the audience a single clue as to who is lying or why.

The plot macguffin is a super-secret technological innovation soon to be unveiled by the company Julia Roberts has infiltrated. I foresaw the final twist, and you will too, but if it helps you understand anything that leads up to it you've got a better mind than I do.

What makes the story far more opaque -- and boring -- than it needs to be is the repeated, egregious violation of the "show don't tell" principle. Practically the entire movie takes place in dialogue. Characters are incessantly telling us what they did ten minutes ago, off-screen.

Presumably the reason so much of this story can't take place in front of the camera is because then the audience would know too much. They would be able to see for themselves whether a character actually did what they have claimed to do. That's verboten here. Rule number one is: the audience must know nothing. Therefore nothing can be shown, only explained. And explanations cannot be trusted. The result is confusion, dissatisfaction and this audience member's brooding preoccupation with the fact that Julia Roberts is starting to visibly age.

SCORE:

How Accomplished: 22/100

How Confused I Was: 92/100

How Much I Enjoyed: 12/100

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Duplicity

Can someone please call time on Tony Gilroy? He may be smart and well-connected, but he makes in-flight movies (i.e. movies you would only watch because the alternative was a 30,000 foot drop). Even theBourne series – knuckle-hard and email-quick as they are – are forgettable. Can you honestly remember anything from the thirdBourne movie? Nothing specific, I’ll bet. And yet, you do remember something. You remember everyone saying it was good. That it was intelligent. That it was made by “grown-ups”. They’ll say the same about Duplicity. And you’ll struggle to remember a single thing about this movie, too.

It’s a spy movie, a caper movie; the kind of thing Cary Grant would have arched an eyebrow in years ago. Julia Roberts and Clive Owen play ex-spies and on-again/off-again lovers who get involved in industrial espionage. Two rival pharmaceutical corporations are at war over a top secret new product. Julia is undercover with the firm who have something new. Clive is working for the other guys. Ulterior motives are so common in these circles; trust is almost a philosophical issue. Here the writer spies a tedious “relationship” parallel. Can Julia really believe that Clive’s in love with her? Can Clive believe that Julia won’t sell him out?

Though no-one gives a shit about the answers to these questions, in answer to the question: “Does Julia Roberts look hot?” It’s a resounding YES. True, Duplicity is a come-back vehicle the way a skateboard carries prestige, but Julia Roberts’ later career isn’t about weekend box office; it’s about saying BITE ME to Botox. Julia, from the looks of it, looks forty. And she looks damn good. There is no attempt to make her look or act like Megan Fox in Duplicity, and you get the impression, if anyone had suggested maybe injecting poison into Julia’s forehead, Julia would have kicked that person in the nut-sack. Now I’ll grant you Julia made a lot of crap in her time, and maybe she wasn’t always the best actress, but you have to grant her this: she hasn’t turned into Nicole Kidman. Even as you’re listening to her deliver another of Tony Gilroy’s woeful attempts at flirtatious banter, you’re mesmerized by the simple fact HER FACE CAN MOVE.

Clive Owen continues with his one-performance-fits-all approach; a little gruff, a little sly, a little careworn, like an uncle who’s always trying to act dangerous. It would take a forensics team to find the difference between the tough, sexy M16 officer he plays here and the tough, sexy Interpol officer he played in The International, but since Owen turned down James Bond, it’s almost the producers’ revenge to have him play 007. In Duplicity he’s mainly there because Julia likes him. They had a good rapport in Closer. They’re equals. The trouble for Julia is: most leading men look like her kid brother.

When Clive and Julia are together, Duplicity works (sort of). Tony Gilroy is best directing two people talking in a room. When the movie aims for tension: you get Julia desperately trying to locate a photocopier. This is not, nor ever will be an occasion for heart-stopping suspense. It would help if the director had some visual sense that offices are f—ing boring to look at for the most part. But no. Julia searches, and the decor, like the movie, is bland.

Tony Gilroy is supposedly a guy who makes movies for adults. This is all well and good for adults who like their movies to last several million years, but for anyone who values pace, Tony Gilroy is an idiot. There isn’t any way in the world Duplicity should be two hours long, but Gilroy has made it two hours and five minutes. What part of “breezy” escaped Mr. Gilroy? This is a movie about two movie stars getting together. You put them in the frame; you give them something suggestive to say… Roll credits. All half the audience wants to see is how Julia’s aging. Duplicity feels like the opposite of Julia’s forehead: sleek, refined and unremarkable.

'Duplicity' Has Potential Cult Status

//gi//gi/</gispan id="app2558160538_extraReview856484277_770683997More"/>/giA 65% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a  39% among Flixster users? That's insane! Duplicity is a mind-bending  thrill, the first movie in a long time that I can accurately say has  blew my mind.
Writer-director Tony Gilroy had a lot riding on this.  Coming off of the Oscar-winning Michael Clayton, Gilroy needed to prove  himself a far better filmmaker than one who could just produce a one-hit  wonder. He absolutely triumphs with Duplicity. He's slapped the boring  genre of sexy crime gambols and said "we're doing this my way." (Keep in  mind, this genre brought us Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Yikes!) Turning the  movie-making art on its heels, Gilroy entertains and stupefies all at  the same
time.
In this mesmerizing malefaction, CIA officer  Claire Stenwick (Julia Roberts, one of two leads I had previously  thought had nothing good left in them) and MI6 advocate Ray Koval (the  other personality) attempt to fool two dueling corporations at each  others throats, one trying to hide a revolutionary new product while the  other bites their nails over what exactly that invention is. So  smartly, Claire and Ray promise each other to kidnap $40 million by  patenting the project themselves before the rival companies have a  chance to. But maybe I'm giving away too much. This is one movie that  toys with your head and continuously makes you think one thing and then  reconsider another, and one that I declare unmissable by anyone.
Duplicity  is amazing in its way of forming a loving romance between two people  who are meant to simply hate each other. Which at times, they do. "Do we  think this way because of what we do, or do we do what we do because of  the way we think?" It all leads to a fantastic conclusion that makes  for multiple viewings.
Maybe it's the remarkably sly style Gilroy  films his caper, or it's watching Paul Giamatti and returning flare Tom  Wilkinson as CEOs of the two monopolies hilariously fight it out. Any  which way, Duplicity has both universal appeal and potential cult status  for future generations.

RATING: 4.5/5 STARS
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-Nick

Last updated: 2010-02-16 20:37:34 by NickOndras

DUPLICITY (2009)

BOTTOM LINE: Very clever and cerebral, “Duplicity” has enough twists and turns to engage you in its 2-hour journey of professional double and triple dealing between characters and corporations, but the film ultimately does not make you care enough about it to make that journey satisfying.

THE GOOD: It is refreshing to see so much effort has gone in to the crafting of a complicated and cerebral story in “Duplicity”, the latest work from writer/director Tony Gilroy who also crafted the well received Michael Clayton. Although the plot becomes very clear by the climax, sifting through the endless layers of double-dealing between the characters involved is very entertaining, starting with the very strong performances of Julia Roberts as Claire and Clive Owen as Ray Koval, two intelligence agents who conspire together to make forty million dollars at the benefit of a corporate show-down between two big companies. Watching Roberts and Owen is fun at times, with their witty banter and double-dealing between each other; a dialogue scene will appear to be running one way and then be turned on its head half way through and we are left wondering who has got the advantage over who throughout. The larger story of one corporation trying to steal a world-changing idea from another corporation is also intriguing, particularly as seen through the two CEO’s Howard Tully (a very devious Tom Wilkinson) and Richard Garsik (a self-absorbed and slightly ridiculous Paul Giamatti). What works so well is that this story will keep you guessing right until the end as to who is working who. In that respect, “Duplicity” certainly lives up to its title and provides a very cerebral experience; make sure you do not park your brain at the door when you walk in to the cinema because you will get lost if you do not keep up.

THE BAD: “Duplicity” is satisfying intellectually but it does not have that knockout delivery that will make it memorable beyond the first viewing. Roberts and Owen are effective in their roles, but they are not that special either, leaving only the particulars of the plot to keep you interested. The structure of the edit is also a problem; although the floating multiple images across the frame which function as windows to flashbacks at certain points in the story are a nice gimmick to begin with, they very quickly become irritating, not only in of themselves but because they lead to interrupting flashbacks which may start to confuse people if they find the main plot too convoluted to follow in the first place. One might suspect that writer/director Tony Gilroy was trying to be a little too clever in putting this all together; yes it’s clever, but cinematically satisfying it is not.

RATING: 7/10

Todd Murphy <br />
http://www.allaboutmovies.net

Duplicity

Action thrillers aren’t really my cup of tea, but I am a fan of Clive Owen and Julia Roberts, not to mention Paul Giamatti, so I gave this one a shot.Once you get past the confusion that hapens as you watch this thing, it isn’t half bad.
Owens and Robierts, aside from their superb acting skills have great chemistry on the screen. I have to wonder what it would take to get these two to do more films together, because they are magic.
Paul Giamatti has a somewhat small role here, but it is nonetheless an important one. Giamattie foes his best to insert some comic relief into the film when he is on the screen, and it works. Kudos to the person that chose to cause him in that role because his scenes keep this film from drifting off into the realm of boredom.
I expected more action scenes out of this flick, but instead all the action is reserved for computer stuff, which is  ”>raher sad when you think about it since this is classified as an action thriller.
There are also were many thrills to be had. Quite honestly, this was more of a drama with bit and pieces of this and that.
The twist at the end kind of left me scratching my head. I mean, you could kind of guess what was going on, but at the same the way things were done and the length of time it went back, made it a little hard to decipher. I for one kept thinking that Owen and Roberts were going to pull out something,
Can I recommend this picture? Let me think about that for a  second or two, because while this is supposedly a serious action/drama, it doesn’t take itself too seriously, which is something I look for in more films than not. I belive there are things that could have been better, but then again, I’m one that strives for perfection.

http://thankyounetflix.wordpress.com

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