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List Price: $29.99 | | Label: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Salesrank: 1373
Released: August 25, 2009 |
| Our Price: $10.91 |
| Used Price: $2.94 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Oscar® winner Julia Roberts and Clive Owen star as two sexy spies-turned-corporate operatives in the midst of a clandestine love affair. When they find themselves on either side of an all-out corporate war, they'll put everything on the line to remain one double-cross ahead in a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse. From writer/director Tony Gilroy (seven-time Oscar®-nominated Michael Clayton) comes the film critics are raving about: “Roberts and Owen have sizzling chemistry in this instant classic.” (Lou Lumenick, New York Post)
Description of Duplicity:
Julia Roberts and Clive Owen surprise and delight on multiple levels in Duplicity, a caper film that keeps the audience guessing if the tone is cheeky, seriously, or both in exactly the same scene. Owen smolders as the relaxed, craggy sexual beast he's become--effortlessly--and Roberts is surprisingly mature and tic-less. And their chemistry threatens to explode out of the beaker. On one level, Duplicity is a sparring romance, bringing to mind the no-holds-barred zingers between Cary Grant and Roz Russell in His Girl Friday. But the film has layers of action and suspense, as well as a neat spin on the spy business. Instead of hunting for, or protecting, confidential state nuclear secrets, as each character once did when they first met, now they are beholden to captains of industry and Madison Avenue--seeking secrets not of national security, but of formulas to the next great… moisturizer. Director Tony Gilroy, who wrote all the Bourne films and wrote and directed Michael Clayton is clearly carving out a snappy path for himself as a master of sleek, suspenseful, energetic films that nonetheless appeal to a mass audience. A special shoutout to the opening scene of a mano a mano fistfight on a tarmac between Armani-clad CEOs (one played by an especially memorable Paul Giamatti). "You on one side, me on the other," says Roberts' Claire at one point to Owen's Ray. "It's perfect." Perfect grownup entertainment. --A.T. Hurley
Stills from Duplicity (Click for larger image)
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Duplicity Reviews:
Duplicity.... 
2009-11-30 - What a waste of acting power!! This movie was so boring and full of sex scenes that make the story line non existant. It is just not what the trailor made it out to be....too bad for Julia Roberts and Clive Owen!
Corporate Espionage Run Amok 
2009-11-22 - "Duplicity" is a movie about corporate espionage, layered with what the viewer believes are double-crosses between two amorously involved spies.
The story is told in flashbacks and thus is quite difficult to follow. Julia Roberts and Clive Owens are spies representing different countries who meet, fall in love and engage in a long and elaborate plan to bilk a corporation out of billions of dollars. There is an arrogant attitude imbedded in all this plotting: the assumption that they are far smarter than any corporate security organization and they never doubt their own capabilities.
There is a lack of chemistry between the two that makes their plans hollow. They do not seem credible or sympathetic and the flashback storyline further adds to making them remote.
Paul Giamatti plays one of the corporate chieftains and he dominates the screen, he grabs our interest.
This is an okay film, pleasant enough but not memorable.
Entertaining, just not a classic
2009-11-10 - Two government spies who fall in love with each other and decide to follow the money into industrial espionage may be a slightly hackneyed plot, but in the right, humorous hands, could have made for a delightful movie. Duplicity is not delightful. It is entertaining as a caper film, but as a romance, not so much.
I never got the chemistry between Julia and Clve and their initial meeting in Dubai was dumb beyond belief. For all Clive's profession of lust at first sight, quite frankly Julia didn't look all that good and what kind of creep doesn't back off at "no"? Sorry. I just didn't believe the attraction furthermore, didn't care. This was surprising from two actors I really like.
There was much to disbelieve on a skills level also. Throughout J and C's decision making and subsequent foray into crime, there was such bumbling and so many mistakes made, it was hard to believe these two were ever competent spies. Of course, if they'd spent as much time on the actual caper as they did on dissecting their relationship and why they shouldn't trust each other, maybe things would have gone differently.
It struck me as unintentionally hilarious that two spy/con artists would get all angsty and appalled at evidence of untrustworthiness in each other, yet arguments on the subject took up a great deal of screen time. Yawn.
On the other hand, Paul Giamatti was a treat to watch as was Tom Wilkinson as rival CEOs. Their slow motion fight during the opening credits was the best scene in the movie. Both Owens and Roberts are nice to look at, the locations were interesting, and there was one moment of genuinely agonizing suspense, if unnecessarily contrived.
The denouement was nicely unexpected and, since I wasn't invested in either character, very satisfactory.
Bottom line? There are much better movies in this genre. Mr. & Mrs. Smith (Widescreen Edition), A Fish Called Wanda, To Catch a Thief (Special Collector's Edition), or Entrapment (Special Edition). For a caper, you can't go wrong with The The Hot Rock or The Ladykillers (Widescreen Edition).
Mediocre and forgettable con-men film
2009-10-30 - The Bottom Line:
Tom Wilkinson and Paul Giamatti are fun as rival CEOs but the overall plotting of the movie should be obvious to anyone with a familiarity with such films and aside from a few laughs there's not much else going on here; Owen and Roberts don't have the type of chemistry required for these roles (Mr. and Mrs. Smith wasn't very good but Pitt and Jolie at least knew what they were doing with similar characters) and, while not terrible, Duplicity emerges as a very forgettable film.
2.5/4
A Con Movie, with the Viewer the Target...
2009-10-28 - The 'Con' has long been a film staple, an intriguing 'tease' that challenges the viewer to piece together an elaborate scheme that unfolds as we watch. In the best of these films, there are three unwritten rules, that makes them special; first, a plot that challenges, and provides surprising, yet believable twists, to keep us on our toes (think, "The Sting"); second, intelligent and despicable villains that deserve to be brought down (Andy Garcia, in "Ocean's Eleven", for example); finally, even more intelligent and likable protaganists we can identify with, and cheer for (two of my favorites were Audrey Hepburn and Peter O'Toole, in "How to Steal a Million"). Director/screenwriter Tony Gilroy, in "Duplicity", provides a clever, modern 'twist' to these rules, but the ultimate 'mark' his con is played on is the viewing audience, and I admit, this disappointed me, even more than the misleading ads that implied the film was a 'romantic comedy'.
First off, I never saw the 'sizzling chemistry' between Julia Roberts and Clive Owen that some critics raved about. Both characters were always so duplicious that I couldn't warm up to them, much less root for them (particularly as, through most of the film, each had different agendas). Their attraction seemed contrived, lacking any heart, and when Julia Roberts can't touch your heart, you have a problem! Next, the 'villains' (Tom Wilkinson and Paul Giamatti) are presented as so cartoonish and petty (opening the film in a shouting match that ends in a brawl), that you'd think even "The A-Team" could bring them down, without breaking a sweat (yeah, I know, this was all a part of the set-up for the 'Con'). Finally, the actual heist itself was so routine and easy to accomplish, I'm amazed two 'professionals' like Owen and Roberts weren't even a tad suspicious. The surprise 'twist' of the finale has been described as pure Hitchcock, but the 'Hitch' film it reminded me of, "Family Plot", handled it's twist ending (and the entire story, for that matter), with far more panache and wit.
"Duplicity" has it's share of fans, so I admit my personal disappointment in the film may simply be a lack of 'sophistication' in Gilroy's modern variation of the 'Con', but if you are not thrilled after you view it, don't say I didn't warn you!
