Duplicity Review

The movie is promoted as a comedy-romance with some action and drama.  I know a lot of the hype was in pairing Roberts with Clive Owen but I didn't know who he was before I saw the movie.  He has a wonderful British accent but let's face it--he's no Pierce Brosnan.

There are four leading characters in the movie and a lot of supporting cast.  The main characters are:

• Julia Roberts as Claire Stenwick
• Clive Owen as Ray Koval
• Paul Giamatti aas Dick Garsik
• Tom Wilkinson as Howard Tully

Roberts plays a CIA officer who works for Tom Wilkinson.  Wilkinson is the owner of a large industry, Burkett and Randle who is a rival to CEO Paul Giamatti.  Owen is an MI6 agent working for Giamatti.  Giamatti's company is Equikrom. Both companies are trying to get a patent to a secret product that promises to change the evolution of hair care products.  You'll have to watch Duplicity to see what the revolutionary product is because I didn't see this coming.

Roberts and Owen encounter each other five years earlier and realize that they have been teamed together.  The professional spies soon get greedy and develop a plan to get $40 million by securing the formula for the secret product for themselves before it is introduced to the public.  As all is fair in love and war you have to pay attention throughout the movie to see if/when the couple will truly fall in love.  But the audience knows that the couple have a lot of trust issues so you are constantly wondering: Are they really working together or is someone going to be scammed in the end?

I got frustrated with all the flashbacks because I never could tell when we were in the here and now.  Both Roberts and Own have trust issues so I was always left wondering at what point they were being honest with each other or were they scamming each other too. The issues of not trusting each other goes all the way to the very end.  "Did you secure the formula or did you trick me?"  "Do you really have the formula or are you just saying that?"  With so many flashbacks and twists and turns it was hard to follow the bigger storyline.

As the movie progresses they move you forward to current date.  They will tell you the time frame and location of where the couple is going to encounter one another again.  There is a little repeated line that Owens uses every time he sees Roberts.  They speak of having been together and she denies it.  He says something to the effect that he would give himself a B or B+ for remembering a face with a name but he never forgets who he slept with.

There was more sensuality and sexual connotation in this movie than I anticipated but it was nothing that would make you cringe.  My main problem was that the movie was rated PG-13 for mild sensuality and language but I was really upset with the level of "GD" that was used.  I believe that is what really disappointed me.  That and the fact that I just couldn't get into the movie or follow it that well.

I wasn't the only one who thought that.  Carla told me the same thing halfway through the movie and once we were out of the theater I heard several people commenting on how difficult it was to follow or "what was the gist of this movie."  I'm not sure if you have ever seen the movie Dirty Rotten Scoundrels with Steve Martin and Michael Caine but I likened the whole plot to that movie but believed that Steve Martin's movie was more engaging.

I wouldn't waste my money on this movie but then again someone else might go in and find this movie very entertaining.  I was drawn into the second storyline in which all the people working for the two companies were doing the entire spy tracking and hacking computer systems, linking with company copiers, and so forth.  I thought that was where the true espionage was taking place.

I found myself trying to nod off because I couldn't get into the movie.  There was a really cool fight in slow motion between the two company rivals at the beginning and I loved that and the last 8-10 minutes of the movie sort of told me what I suspected 15 minutes into the movie.  If you want to see who is scamming who you will need to watch the movie.  I am not planning on buying this movie.  I wouldn't even purchase it when it goes in the $5 bin.  I wouldn't even watch this movie once it is released on cable because I know I could find something better and I don't want to watch it again when I know it bothered me to hear the severity of profanity that was being used.

And by the way, there was nothing glamorous about Julia Roberts in this movie.  I thought they could have done a little better with her hair design and wardrobe.  She seemed too frumpy to me.  I'll continue to enjoy her in Pretty Woman, Steel Magnolias and Stepmom.  I only hope there are better days coming for both Roberts and Owen.  I think it will do well at the box office because people are going to be expecting more than is delivered.  People will enter curious and leave disappointed or wondering what they just saw.  I am also looking forward to reading some more positive reviews on Duplicity so that perhaps I can see where the big deal was and get a better and more clear understanding of what might make this movie a success.