Duplicity

(2009)
A loaner from a friend; he bought it blind, and then loaned it to me so I could be his screener. Its fun to be a virtual food-taster. As you may or may not know, this is the thriller with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen. Owen is Ray, a spy, as is Claire (Roberts); they bump into each other professionally and discover a spark, even though she screws him over later, and then they spar back and forth. Hmm, sounds familiar; in fact, it sounds a lot like Mr. and Mrs. Smith, save that here the couple isnt married and they know each other are spies, but aside from those details, this film could be a sequel. Roberts is fine in the Jolie role, and Owen is a bit better than expected, but theres so much skullduggery and double-crossing in this film that you have to pay way more attention than you should have to in a light comedy thriller like this movie is trying to be. Oh, and for color we have Paul Giamatti in uber-prick mode, ranting and screaming; luckily hes not around much, and the film glides mostly on the slick performances by Roberts and Owen. For all that, it feels like writer/director Tony Gilroy who has written some shockingly good films (the Bourne movies. Michael Clayton, etc.) is trying way too hard. The cleverness feels forced, not smooth and easy the way it should, and the plot is exceptionally busy and, especially since its told out of chronological order, can be tough to keep track of. We latch onto Owen right away, but Roberts is a bit thornier, and we never really know what shes up to until almost the end, which I know is kind of the point, but I think it works against the movie rather than for it. In M&MS, even though the two leads work at cross purposes, we can root for them both; and it feels like thats what Gilroy was going for, but he never achieved it. Its not a bad film; theres some nice cinematography and both Owen and Roberts are skilled enough that you feel satisfied at the end. But I couldnt shake the feeling that for all the top-notch talent involved, this really should have turned out better than it did. Its a better made film than M&MS, though thats not that big a compliment; I didnt mind spending two hours with these characters, but I didnt really miss them when they were gone, either. July 7, 2013