Review: “Duplicity”
This is an easy movie to review, mainly because in all it’s promise of complexity, “Duplicity” is just a funny romantic comedy with some twists along the way, but nothing that will leave the audience flabergasted (did I spell that right?).
Julia Roberts and Clive Owen play retired secret agents who plot to use their skills to steal a secret product from a cosmetics company to sell the patent and make millions. One works for one company, owned by Tom Wilkinson’s character, and the other one works for Paul Giamatti.
Acting-wise, it excells, not due to its main stars, but because Giamatti and Wilkinson are a joy to watch. Roberts looks amazingly hot in her forties, and convincingly out-stages Clive Owen, who just does a decent job as the man who holds the remote at home, but gets the wife to chose the channel. But Paul Giamatti, who takes serious roles into sky-high acting nirvana, got a laugh from the whole audience when he was on screen. And Tom Wilkinson, who I am a personal fan, is the silent assassin with very limited screen time.
But the problem with “Duplicity” is that it is just fun. With a premise such as this, there was much more ground to explore than the simple, often-times predictable twists revealed through cheap flash-backs every single fucking time. I have what I have come to call a screenwriting curse: for a long time, no movie except “Watchmen” had a plot-twist that got me jumping from my seat, screaming hurray to the screenwriter. But in “Duplicity”, the whole audience was waiting for that moment, and it never came. The twist at the end might be surprising to some, but it still left me unhappy with how the plot developed.
And this doesn’t mean that “Duplicity” is a bad movie. It’s just that while pretending to be a “Romantic Spy Comedy”, it forgets the spy part and becomes something that Nancy Myers could have done with the same acting tallent. It is fun to see Roberts’ character take the wheel and make Owen’s feel like a dog on a leash (especially if you’re American and love the parallel between CIA and MI6), but, probably from the fear of overly confusing the audience, it stays at that.
Release dates: USA & UK: March 20th, Germany: April 30th
Kristie’s take:
I like movies that have a sense of humor about themselves. And that is clearly what sold it to me – aside from the cast and the acting. The ubiquitous Tom Wilkinson and the unerring Paul Giamatti are a pleasure to watch and the chemistry between Clive Owen and the simply stunning-looking Julia Roberts works well. Writer/director Tony Gilroy has the whole “Balance of Power” thing down and though it does translate well into romance, though the rest of the story falls a little flat. But this is mainly a romance and a spy movie only by force of circumstance. And sometimes you just have to prioritize: Jason Bourne’s love interest just gets killed to he can brood and avenge – end of love story, start of major kick-ass retribution. In “Duplicity” two agents meet, sparks fly and then everyone plays everyone. And I like the fact that we are dealing with industrial espionage, hence the crappy sunglasses and bad accents. And my guess is that no self-respecting agent would wobble on cobblestone in wedges like that. (Guddy, how could you not notice those shoes!) And that is what makes it fun. It is a fortunate turn of events that Clive Owen gets to horse around playing offbeat James Bond agent characters (like in “The International” and “The Pink Panther”, etc.). It becomes him. And Julia Roberts is just a wonder: beautiful, smart and sexy.
Perfect date movie.
Popularity: 4%
It’s a rare thing, to read a movie review and know, for a fact, if you’re gonna like this movie or not. Movies have existed for over a century now, and with all the changes in techniques and styles, older movies have become irrelevant as a reference for the modern public. Movie critics have become overzealous of their knowledge in cinematic history and forgotten the fact that most people watch movies just to have a good time.
