“DUPLICITY”

Reviewed 8 April 2009 by Ted Faraone

Three stars out of five;  $8.00 ticket on a scale of $0 to $12.00

LOVE AMONG THE SPOOKS

“Duplicity,” the post-maternity comeback movie in which Julia Roberts is reunited with Clive Owen from “Closer,” has a lot going for it.  Unfortunately, for the first hour and fifteen minutes of this two-hour and five-minute comedy which masquerades as a crime thriller, auds will be challenged to figure out what the heck is going on.  Helmer and screenwriter Tony Gilroy appears to have made a conscious choice to confuse viewers in keeping with pic’s theme of the Mexican standoff squared.  Ultimately, however, all is revealed in a surprise ending that is only hinted at in the opening reel.

Roberts (CIA agent Claire Stenwick) and a slimmed-down Owen (MI-5’s Ray Koval) play a pair of spooks who meet in Dubai and fall in love.  Their meeting becomes a sort of leitmotif marking turning points in the film.  The “meet cute” is inauspicious.  Claire takes one for the team to get hold of Egyptian air defense codes in Koval’s possession.  She then disappears only to re-enter Koval’s life years later in Rome – with a scheme:  The pair will quit their respective spy services for corporate espionage where they plan to outwit their employers and walk away with the payoff of a lifetime…or two.

Double and triple agents abound.  One is never quite sure until the final reel who is working for whom.  Koval and Stenwick make a marvelous modern-day Nick and Nora Charles minus the altruism.  A lifetime in the spy biz renders neither trustful of the other.  In one funny scene, Stenwick excoriates Koval for doing exactly what she did to him when first they met – taking one for the team.  Roberts has female jealousy nailed.  The only thing lacking in her performance is charm, which Owen fairly oozes.  She comes off more like Erin Brockovich in the spy business than anything else.

The complicated plot centers on a rivalry between two corporate chieftains ably played by Tom Wilkinson and Paul Giamatti.  The prize is a formula for a shampoo that cures baldness, allegedly owned by Wilkinson’s group.  Gilroy’s writing is crisp.  Punch lines abound.  Excellent sound work ensures that all of them are audible.  Editing is economical and in keeping with Gilroy’s vision.  Lensing is more than acceptable.  And the payoff, when it finally comes, is priceless.

If it weren’t for the interminable confusion of the first several reels, “Duplicity” would be a contender for Best Picture.  As it is, despite strong opening weekend box office, it risks becoming a cult and film school favorite.  Cable TV auds are likely to reach for the remote.

Distributed in the US by Universal, pic carries a PG-13 rating due to some language and sexual content, but in reality there is nothing in it objectionable to any but the most conservative parent.

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