DUPLICITY
UNIVERSAL
RELEASED 20 March 2009
Writer Tony Gilroy has some pretty high credentials under his belt. Credited with writing the Jason Bourne films, he branched out into directing with the self-penned ‘Michael Clayton’, which picked up critical acclaim and award nominations for it’s intelligent writing and it’s star George Clooney. He’s onboard for the new Bourne installment (Damon and director Greengrass also return), and next month’s ‘State of Play’ starring Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck and Helen Mirren also has his name on it. So to say Gilroy is currently one of the hottest writer/directors around isn’t an understatement. ‘Duplicity’ is an attempt to marry his sharp writing with a romantic angle cut from the cloth of golden age Hollywood.
Back in 2003, MI6 agent Ray Koval (Clive Owen) is in Dubai carrying secret documents. At a party he confidently chats up Claire Stenwick (Julia Roberts), and finds himself sleeping off an eighteen-hour drugging as Claire is ‘CIA’, and has stolen his documents. Cut to modern-day New York, and Ray ‘chances’ upon Claire, where she vehemently denies ever meeting Ray, that is, until a Rubik’s Cube keyring they both carry identifies them as contacts for the rival pharmaceutical company security firms they work for. Reluctantly, they agree to work together. However, the movie flashbacks to events over the past two years, beginning in Rome (and taking in Las Vegas, London, the Bahamas, and Miami), that show Ray and Claire are conducting a love affair while playing their own dangerous game with the huge pharmaceuticals they are supposed to be protecting.
In a comical opening credits scene (we’re not sure if it’s actually supposed to have happened or is just metaphoric), we see Howard Tully (Tom Wilkinson) and Richard Garsik (Paul Giamatti), the two heads of the pharmaceutical companies trying to beat each other to the next ‘big thing’ (basically a cream or lotion), meet on an airstrip. The whole scene is in slow-motion, and the two walk towards each other, shouting, wagging fingers, and finally coming together in a clumsy fight that has echoes of a bad wrestling match. It’s an amusing intro.
Once the words start to roll, we’re treated to a witty game of mistrust and sexual tension between Owen and Roberts. There’s a memorable dialogue when they first ‘bump’ into each other in New York that includes Owen stating, ‘Faces, I'd say I'm like a B, B-Minus. What I'm good at? Where I'm solid? People I've screwed. That's been a traditional area of strength for me.’ Their reacquaintance speech is used a few times during the movie, and it’s so well written that two periphery characters actually joke about it’s laconic coolness towards the end of the movie as they listen to a bugged recording of Koval. I found this part of the movie to be slightly smug and post-modern, because Tony Gilroy is basically patting himself on the back within his own movie. It’s not the only aspect of the movie I had a problem with either. The script is always superbly written and intelligent. But Gilroy’s razor-sharp writing doesn’t let much light-heartedness into the film. The romance feels cold, and I never really saw what the attraction between Koval and Stenwick was. They love their duplicitous jobs, but I don’t think they really love each other. The end of the film seems to validate this.
Whatever my feelings about the love story angle, Tony Gilroy writes cracking dialogue, and Clive Owen and Julia Roberts both shine here. Owen will always be ‘the Bond that never was’, and ‘Duplicity’ is another spy movie where you have the locations, the gadgets, the subterfuge, the Armani suits, and the overall style of a Bond movie, minus the car chases and the fisticuffs. Owen is confident and sexy as Ray Koval, and there almost seems to be a little nod to the Daniel Craig franchise as Owen saunters towards the camera in a hotel room with just a bath towel wrapped around his waist and a toned upper-half on display. That’s not to say Julia Roberts doesn’t still have a mature leading lady glamour, and she displays a tasteful degree of skin too. And she flashes that famous smile less then fifteen minutes into the movie!
Tom Wilkinson and Paul Giamatti perform wonderful cameo roles as the dominating company heads, and there’s an understated supporting cast who fill out the movie.
The story manages to reveal just enough information to keep you guessing how it may all turn out, and there’s a ‘Macguffin’ (the plot device that motivates the characters) which, although isn’t really important, is stunningly obvious when you consider it’s the pharmaceutical industry we’re dealing with, a ‘holy grail’ if you will. I was never quite sure, as the movie title suggests, who to trust, or even if basic facts from early in the movie were in fact true, and this sense of doubt about where we’re headed is definitely a strength of the film. The cinematography shows off plenty of sparse, cold corporate office spaces and high-rise views, as well as some five-star hotel rooms. Music is a snappy, beat ‘n’ strings-driven affair from James Newton Howard.
‘Duplicity’ is smart, cool, intelligent, and not your average romantic spy thriller. It’s a brave movie, and I don’t think it works as well as it could have, but it will certainly appeal to an older audience who like their movies to engage the brain.
THREE OUT OF FIVE