Duplicity
Director Tony Gilroy is perhaps best known for his Oscar nominated Michael Clayton. Not a bad little film and one that featured excellent performances from George Clooney and Tom Wilkinson. For his next film Duplicity, Gilroy is on altogether lighter territory, albeit still within the world of corporate skulduggery.
The tone here is similar to Oceans 11 or Charade, although not as good as either of the aforementioned caper classics. Clive Owen and Julia Roberts play corporate spies Ray and Claire who share a steamy past. They decide to pull off an elaborate multi-million dollar con on their respective employers, but can they trust each other?
Clive Owen is good, and Julia Roberts isn’t bad either (though not up to the standard of her more interesting Erin Brockovitch type roles). The excellent Tom Wilkinson and Paul Giamatti offer good support as Claire and Ray’s feuding bosses and there are a host of interesting bit parts from the likes of David Shumbris, Oleg Shtefanko, Kathleen Chalfant and Wayne Duvall.
The screenplay feels a little forced in the first half, but it picks up a good head of steam in the second, leading to an entertaining, moderately exciting climax. There are countless betrayals, twists and turns, each of which are progressively more implausible but that’s part of the fun. However, I did have some issues with the way it was directed. The split screen technique seemed rather forced, and on a more trivial note I really don’t need four separate shots of Nelsons Column, Big Ben, Tower Bridge, a red bus and an onscreen subtitle to tell me the location we’re seeing is London.
There are also some sexual references which may irritate some Christians, but nothing too severe. In short, this is fluff, but entertaining fluff.
Simon Dillon, March 2009
