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conspiracy backfires 2010-09-07

Reviewer: N. janus

I like both Clive Owen and Julia roberts, but this has got to be one of the worst movies for both of them, it is entertaining to be sure, but pulled by the hairs and spitting on himself Paul Giamatti and his sophisticated high tech goons are a disgrace to what could have been a neat scenario.

Duplicity Delivers Doubt and Devotion 2010-09-07

Reviewer: J. Romeo

I love a good mystery, a good whodunit. "Capers", they used to call them. What I like even more are movies where nothing is what it seems and nothing ends the way that the audience thinks that it will end. Remember the first time you saw The Sixth Sense? We were all blown away when it was revealed that Dr. Malcolm Crowe, played by Bruce Willis, had been dead from the start of the film. However, if we had paid attention there were clues throughout the film pointing to the fact. All we had to do was pay attention. How about The Sting? Remember what it was like when you realized at then end of the film that Newman and Redford also stung the audience?

Duplicity seemed like it was going to be one of those movies. Just the name, Duplicity, tells the audiences that things are not going to be what they seem. The director, Tony Gilroy, does a good job leading viewers through the world of corporate spies whose job is to steal secrets from competing companies, at the same time protecting their own secrets.


The story revolves around corporate spies Ray Koval and Claire Stenwick, convincingly played by Clive Owen and Julia Roberts. Koval and Stenwick have a plan to steal a secret formula for their boss, Richard Garsick (Paul Giamatti), from a rival company owned by Howard Tully (Tom Wilkinson). However, they never intend on turning anything over to Garsik. Their plan is to sell the secret formula to the highest bidder.


This is where things get tricky in the movie. We can never be sure if either party is being honest. There are enough hints that Claire might be trying to screw Ray out of the formula and the big payday. There are also enough hints that Ray may throw Claire under the proverbial bus to protect his own hide. Because they never know when the other one can be trusted, the audience is left guessing which one will screw the other one first.


For the duration of the movie, there is a build up to the conclusion where our suspicions are either going to be proven correct or there is a twist that we missed along the way. What we get is far from the ending that anyone expected. And not in a good way.


It turns out that there never was a formula. Tully set up the whole thing, from the beginning, to screw over Garsik. There is no way we could have known this though. There were no hints, clues, or signals that Tully had someone in Garsik's company. How were supposed to know that there was a camera in Koval and Stenwik's secret apartment?


This is Duplicity's greatest failure. It would have been a great ending to a great movie, but there were no clues or hints that the people being duped were Koval, Stenwick, Garsick, and the audience. There was a chance to turn this movie into one of the classic what-you-see-is-not-what-you-get films, a movie that people would have talked about with friends. However, we have to learn that Tully had orchestrated everything through a montage of flashback scenes.


Should we have been on the scam that was being pulled? No, half the fun of this kind of movie is learning that we got scammed, too. Should we have had some clues? Some hints? Yes. The other half of the fun is knowing that, had we paid attention, we may have caught on to what was really going on. The viewer should have gotten that "ah ha" moment, but we were cheated out of it.


I expected something more than a clichéd technique from a director who's last film, Michael Clayton, was one of the best films of 2007.When directors pull this stunt, "this" is what really happened, but we just didn't show "you" stunt, it says to the audience that they are not smart enough to figure things out if it was presented in another way.


However, this one flaw doesn't warrant the banning of Duplicity from your DVD player. Far from it. Duplicity is a good film if we set aside the fact that Gilroy wanted to make a cute film with a twist and look at the film as a romance. Yes, a romance. At its heart, Duplicity is really nothing more than a romance.


In the process of stealing the formula, Ray and Claire learn to love each other for who they are and, more importantly, they learn to trust each other. As anyone that has been married can tell you,a relationship, for all its ups and downs, is about trust.

At the end of the film, when they don't have anything to show for their efforts, they still have each other. Really, what's more romantic than a couple that has been through the ringer and has come out stronger on the other side?



Rent Duplicity for the great acting, but stay for the romance. Watch it with that special someone in your life. You won't regret a moment.

Total Waste of Time 2010-08-25

Reviewer: Jack Cooper

This is a real sleeper, I mean like falling asleep. A real waste of 2 hours.

Waste of time, money and effort 2010-08-14

Reviewer: Gauntletwielder

Such a bad movie! This movie is proof that two A-List stars don't always make a great movie together.

This movie is bad. It's painful to watch. I guarantee your apathy towards the movie will increase as the movie drags forward.

And Julia Roberts!?!?!? What happened with her!?!?!? It looks as if the makeup crew went out of their way to make her very unattractive. She looked more like a stereotypical menopausal aunt than Julia Roberts. I commend her desire to have no plastic surgery, but yikes! I kept wondering what happened to her "girl next door" good looks she had in "Notting Hill." Those days are gone. Time can be a cruel, inescapable enemy.

I am posting this review as a warning to all consumers: times are tough for most people these days, please spend your money on anything except this movie.

Needs a Suspense Injection 2010-08-07

Reviewer: Elliott

Julia Roberts and Clive Owen play lovers who play each other. They are ensconced in a game of corporate espionage. Of course, multiple millions are at stake. There's a lot of clever dialogue. Owen and Roberts are top-notch actors who create some magic moments.

But there's just too much confusing skipping back and forth in place and time. Too much spy, counter-spy. And it's hard to get worked up about either the product they are trying to steal or the game plan that they use. A film doctor might prescribe a suspense injection.

Basically, it's the old he/she loves me, he/she loves me not, done fairly well. But it's been done a lot better