DUPLICITY

“DUPLICITY” (Clive Owen, Julia Roberts, Paul Giamatti & Tom Wilkinson)

A better actress in the female lead & you’d have a nifty, intelligent con flick here. Actually, this is a nifty, intelligent con flick which is saying something these days, because, even though it was easy to tell that the con had its flaws & there were already multiple twists in the plot that made you leery of just how many more twists were coming – I liked how it ended.
Clive Owen as Ray Koval; an ex-spy turned get rich quick schemer carries the film. Giamatti & Wilkinson as rival corporate bigwigs do command the screen (especially Giamatti) but they’re the icing on the cake, it is Owen’s character that keeps you interested in what’s taking place. Appearing at times to be highly intelligent & a step ahead of the rest, Ray also has his moments of looking like a complete idiot – seemingly being duped by Julia Roberts’ Claire; another ex-spy turned... well, we don’t really know what she is until the final scenes. Clive has the much more difficult role & simply makes Roberts look like an inferior actor.
The dialogue, as they like to say, is ‘snappy’, but even with the witty repartee the scenes with Ray & Claire are the ones that fall flat. I would liked to have seen Roberts switch roles with Carrie Preston, who plays a corporate secretary that Ray seduces to gain inside info on the company she works for. Carrie was pretty, spunky, naive & ultimately broken when discovering the cute doctor she met in the bar screwed her in more ways than one. The only problem then would have been, can Roberts handle the bit part? . . . My guess is no, she couldn’t.
To reveal too much of the plot would be spoiling the fun because ‘misleading’ is the key word to practically every scene. Other than Roberts, my only complaint would be the irritating ‘flashbacks’ – About every fifteen minutes up pops the dreaded ‘Two Months Earlier...’ caption. Followed by ‘Two Weeks Earlier’, ‘Two Days Earlier’, ‘Two Minutes Earlier’... Okay, I’m exaggerating, but you know what I mean. The things is, just like director Tony Gilroy’s first film, “Michael Clayton”, in the end it all comes together nicely & most of the questions are answered. But if it helps you to decide whether or not this movie might be one you’d want to see – here’s the layout in a nutshell... Mmmm, nut shells... In the beginning Gilroy created Ray & Claire; two corporate spies that have a brief history (she duped him years earlier) Ray convinces Clair that he won’t get fooled again & she reluctantly agrees to work with him. Claire works for Wilkinson’s company which is about to unleash a product that's guaranteed to make billions. Ray works for Giamatti’s company that may possibly go bankrupt if they don’t discover what this secret product is & steal it. There’s your basic premise, but it does become somewhat entangled as each flashback reveals more & more about what’s really going on between Ray & Claire. If you’re afraid because Owen & Giamatti teamed in the exceptionally dumb ‘Shoot ‘Em Up’, have no fear with ‘Duplicity’ – If anything this script may be a little TOO clever.
Now that I think of it, Owen & Roberts appeared in the exceptionally boring ‘Closer’, didn’t they? But Clive, at least, redeems himself – he is excellent; & Paul, Tom & Carrie all deliver top notched performances as well.