Duplicity (2009)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Tony Gilroy

Writer (WGA):

Tony Gilroy (written by)

Release Date:

20 March 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

Outwit. Outspy. Outsmart. Outplay. Then get out.

Plot:

A pair of corporate spies who share a steamy past hook up to pull off the ultimate con job on their respective bosses.

Plot Keywords:

Product | Corporation | Dubai | Flashback | Spy

Cast

Clive Owen	...	Ray Koval
Julia Roberts	...	Claire Stenwick
Tom Wilkinson	...	Howard Tully
Paul Giamatti	...	Richard Garsik
Dan Daily	...	Garsik's Aide
Lisa Roberts Gillan	...	Tully's Assistant (as Lisa Roberts Gillan)
David Shumbris	...	Turtleneck
Rick Worthy	...	Dale Raimes
Oleg Shtefanko	...	Boris Fetyov (as Oleg Stefan)
Denis O'Hare	...	Duke Monahan
Kathleen Chalfant	...	Pam Frailes
Khan Baykal	...	Dinesh Patel
Thomas McCarthy	...	Jeff Bauer
Wayne Duvall	...	Ned Guston
Fabrizio Brienza	...	Hotel Manager

Also Known As:

Duplicity - Gemeinsame Geheimsache (Germany)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for language and some sexual content.

Runtime:

125 min | Turkey:118 min

Country:

USA | Germany

Language:

English | Spanish | Russian | German

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #45010) | Ireland:12A | Australia:PG | Finland:K-7 | South Korea:12 | UK:12A | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | Canada:PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | Hong Kong:IIA | Belgium:KT | Netherlands:6 | Philippines:PG-13 (MTRCB) | Argentina:13 | Mexico:B | Sweden:Btl | New Zealand:PG | Norway:A | Australia:M (DVD rating)

Filming Locations:

Atlantis Casino, Paradise Island, Bahamas

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Writer-director Tony Gilroy named Julia Roberts' character "Stenwick" as a tribute to the classic-era movie actress Barbara Stanwyck.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: During the opening-scene fight between the two CEOs in the airport it is supposedly raining (everybody carries umbrellas). However, Tully and Garsik do not get wet.

Quotes:

Ray Koval: I think about you all the time. I think about you even when you're with me. I look at you, I can't stop looking at you. I look at you, and I think, "That woman... That woman knows who I am and loves me anyway."

Movie Connections:

Featured in "The Rotten Tomatoes Show: Mosters vs Aliens/The Haunting in Connecticut/12 Rounds (#1.5)" (2009)

Soundtrack:

Swampblood

a throwback to very good "light" Hollywood Hitchcock, with virtues and vices (mostly virtues)

We need more filmmakers like Tony Gilroy in Hollywood right now. Coming off of his debut feature Michael Clayton, after years of working on stuff like the Bourne movies, to his second film Duplicity, he's marked some strong territory as a guy who can work with top-shelf A-list talent and put them in material that is mature just enough to make it safe for the 30+ year olds to see it and not think their intelligence is being wasted. His films provide such a wealth of juicy scenes of dialog and plots that make us think about what the characters will do next as opposed to just spoon-feeding along the conventions. And even if Duplicity is not quite as excellent as his first film (and suffice to say it's got a couple of things that make it tick) it's still a marker of fine entertainment. At the least, it makes for a strong matinée viewing, if one were to rate it such.

Like one of those features from the 40s or 50s from Hitchcock where he would place Cary Grant and (insert blonde bombshell here), Duplicity relies on its stars, and sometimes its dependable character actor supporting players, to make it more about watching them and how they go about the material as opposed to the real specifics of what to worry in the plot itself. Hitchcock wasn't worried about what was really in the "secret" formula since he knew, maybe rightfully so, that the audience doesn't really care either. When will Grant and Kelly have that kiss? It's certainly a lot more fun trying to explain how well Clive Owen and Julia Roberts fit into this classic Hollywood couple mold (not to mention since it's their second time on-screen following the more theater-based Closer) and play off one another than describing how "one is a MI6 and the other CIA and their operatives in these corporate firms and one might be making a toaster oven or yada yada and they both do A and B and..."

So yeah, basically Duplicity is about conning and about not believing what the other person is saying, but at the same time Gilroy toys around with the idea of people who are stuck in a world where by proxy they can't trust one another but get each other so well who the other is at the same time. The characters Tom Wilkinson and Paul Giamatti play- who, by the way, share one of the funniest and most awesome opening credits sequences I've seen in years- are playing checkers in their corporate one-oneupmanship games, but it's Roberts and Owen that are playing chess which is a little brainier but trickier at the same time.

One might criticize that there's almost too much of this back-and-forth guessing and curiously trying to figure out what the other is saying about something. But if done right in a film it can be fun to watch just to see what move or motive or revelation will come next. And Gilroy has casted these two stars so perfectly that you can lose yourself in these scenes where they keep playing the same guessing games (some dialog deliberately repeated). This helps especially when the actual plot becomes a little silly, and particularly when it's revealed in the last ten minutes what the big TWIST has occurred. It won't do any good to explain what it is, but suffice to say it's a little too convenient to put into exposition, and it's been done before. In a script that is otherwise sharp and clever and dramatically pleasing in construction and character Gilroy falls back on a couple of tired devices towards the end.

It comes dangerously close, as Ebert pointed out, to saying simply "who cares?" But, thankfully, Duplicity does, for at least roughly in total 2/3 of the running time, give us characters to care about and go along for the ride with and so have this sheer joy of an A-list movie that tries to be about the guessing game and cons and covert operations and the nature of this whole thing Gilroy's dealing with. And the last shot, thankfully, tries to put a good coda on everything that's happened. It's a glossy, breezy time in usually the best way. 7.5/10