Duplicity (Blu-ray)

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---

There can be too much plot. The Tony Gilroy penned and directed "Duplicity" is a prime example of this. For those that know me, it should be surprising that my complaint against the romantic spy film is directed towards the plot and not Julia Roberts. It could be shocking for some that I am not launching into a tirade against the actress as I am still miffed that she won an Oscar for wearing a push-up bra in "Erin Brockovich." Truth be told, Roberts didn´t annoy me terribly in "Duplicity," but I grew tired of keeping the convoluted plot straight in my head as it became apparent very quickly that Gilroy was trying to be as clever as he could be with unexpected plot twists and confused repetition to give a false façade of intelligent filmmaking. While "Duplicity" is an entertaining enough film, its out of order narrative and machine gun delivery of plot twists are too numerous to be enjoyed by many.

In "Duplicity," the actress with the toothy mile-wide smile portrays a former CIA spy, Claire Stenwick, who comes under the employment of cosmetics company Burkett & Randle. Capable leading man Clive Owen starts against Roberts as her love interest Ray Koval who is also a spy and works for competing company Equikrom. The two had met years earlier when Ray was an MI6 agent and Claire seduced him in Dubai and stole some highly sensitive documents from Ray. They are reunited when Ray becomes her handler as she works undercover to provide secret information for Equikrom. Equikrom and Burkett & Randle are highly competitive companies and Burkett & Randle CEO Howard Tully (Tom Wilkinson) and Equikrom CEO Dick Garsik (Paul Giamatti) had come to blows on an airport taxiway.

The plot can be quite confusing and I don´t want to spoil the numerous turns and twists in the film as that would require a good amount of typing and a roadmap. As it turns out, Claire and Ray have since become lovers and put together a very convoluted and complicated plot to make a ton of money by working together against the corporate giants and retire to a peaceful existence together somewhere. Frozen pizza, travel agents and casinos come into play as the story unfolds. Claire and Ray clearly have feelings for each other, but their professional careers and general mistrust of everything puts the actual nature of their relationship and their business arrangement in question with every twist and turn the plot makes. When Burkett & Randle announce a surprise press conference for a revolutionary product, the game is on as Garsik wants to steal the product and Claire and Ray can earn the $35 million by stealing the secret and selling to another party.

Before the end of the film, nothing is exactly as it seems and one more major plot twist is revealed before the credits crawl. While the exact ending wasn´t expected, it was with definite certainty that something was going to happen. Another certainty was that this romantic little picture would end with the attractive stars living happily ever after. This is a film where you need to pay absolute and complete attention to its unfoldings to appreciate everything that is going on and to fully digest the complicated story written by Gilroy. If you miss any of a dozen scenes in the film, you risk derailing your comprehension of what is going on. As I stated in my opening paragraph, the talented writer in Gilroy set out to be clever and trick his viewers as often as possible and while I feel he succeeds, "Duplicity" becomes a tightly raveled mess that slowly unravels.

Clive Owen is an up and coming name in Hollywood and with each new film starring the Brit it becomes apparent that he is going to be around for quite a while. On the other hand, Julia Roberts has fallen from the limelight after taking an extended break to raiser her family. I applaud her decision to be a mother first and an actress secondly and I appreciated the break as well as I still do not consider her a great actress and she typically just grates on my nerves instead of entertain. Owen is again very good in "Duplicity" and I fully believe the man could read a newspaper for two hours while sitting on the toilet and it would be worth watching. He is that talented. Roberts is good and this is one of the few pictures starring the Oscar winning actress that I enjoyed her presence. The two leads are nicely matched and if it weren´t for them "Duplicity" wouldn´t be half as entertaining.

While it may be harder to follow than "Pulp Fiction" for a first time viewer, "Duplicity" is still an entertaining little movie. It was advertised as a comedy and there are a few good humorous moments, but in no way can this compete with the far more entertaining Clive Owen film "Shoot ´Em Up." That film was balls-to-the-wall fun, while "Duplicity" is more geared towards the mature viewer who doesn´t want to laugh out loud, but likes to smile while sitting down to drink bottled water and ignore butter on the popcorn. The interaction between Owen and Roberts provides some humor, but the very talented Giamatti steals every scene he can, but I must re-iterate that Giamatti and Owen are far more fun to watch in "Shoot ´Em Up." This movie requires a good deal of thought and effort to fully appreciate and while the return of investment may not be as high as one would hope, "Duplicity" has its moments.