*** Official DUPLICITY Review Thread (2 Viewers)

Opened March 20, 2009
directed by Tony Gilroy

Stars: Clive Owen, Julia Roberts with supporting actors, Tom Wilkinson and Paul Giamatti

Here's my review, Warning a minor spoiler from the beginning:

The film opens with a “chance” meeting between two people at a party and things escalate from there. The problem starts the next morning when 18 hours later, Clive Owen’s “Ray Koval” awakes to find secret documents under his care, mysteriously gone – along with the woman he met the previous day. Several years later “Ray” is working for a top-tear company, among other things, and by chance meets up with “Claire Stenwick” played by Julia Roberts who happens to work for a rival powerhouse company. There are more twists and turns throughout this two plus hour film that I don’t really care to spoil for you. Pretentious and generic banter, with a one flash back after another of the virtually the same scene over and over again with some seriously intense background music that feels like it has absolutely no business doing in this film. I actually found the score quite hilarious in the sense that the scenes that were supposed to be tense were barely a tad less dull then the ones in the previous scene.

Honestly, the only thing I really enjoyed about the film was the end. And no by the way if you think I mean the credits, that’s a close second. The ending surprised me in a way that I said once the credit rolled by that if only the majority of the film had an ounce of the last scene’s flavor, I would not have been checking the time ever ten minutes. To say I was bored to tears would be an understatement. Coming off of director Tony Gilroy’s feature film debut hit “Michael Clayton” this film is destined to be a critically acclaimed smash.

Visually, the locations are pretty and the colors are lush but with a lack of substance written for the characters to say and do, this film falls into a forgettable and dull tale that will no doubt make a lot of money and will no doubt keep the principal actor’s stake in Hollywood rise even higher. I could be wrong, but I'm fairly sure that Clive Owen wore the same tan suit he wore in "The International" in this film as well. The performances were fine, I've never been a fan of Julia Roberts and most likely never will. I think she's a bit overrated (a bit, heh) and feel that the true standout in this film were Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson's bit parts as bitter rivals. Perhaps a sequel, or better yet a prequel within a sequel will arise that will center around them! I would'nt pay to see it, but it'd be something I'd read a blurb about.

2/4 - C

Ryan Anderson

I thought the film sort of runs out of steam in terms of sustaining this viewer's interest 2/3 of the way into the film, so I was grateful when it ended, but it wasn't the fastest-moving 2 hours I've had at the movies recently, not sure if it were to be tightened up by 10-15 minutes it would play better as Tony Gilroy has to set up all the layers to get to the punchline, but it just felt overlong in its execution.

I give it 2.5 stars, or a grade of C+.

I liked it better than either Patrick or Ryan, but it has flaws, for sure.

I think it tries a bit too hard to be "smart", which I liked in general, but the plot twists and time jumps are hard to follow at first. Later, I looked forward to more "jumps" to "fill in" what gaps there still were - not sure if that's a flaw or a feature.

The dialog/banter between Owen & Roberts is clever, for the most part. I liked the soundtrack (very jazzy/modern, which worked for me), and thought the nearly opening scene between Giamatti & Wilkinson in slo-mo was hilarious (and really portends what the movie is ultimately "about", despite Owen & Roberts as the "stars").

I think this will NOT be a box office smash, mostly b/c the ending isn't "Hollywood enough".

i thought the concept was interesting and i love clive owen and julia roberts, but the movie was okay. haha. thanks for posting!