Duplicity

Copyright 2009, Universal Pictures

Tony Gilroy really loves ending his movies with long, long takes, huh? His latest, a caper dramedy called Duplicity, is certainly a much lighter affair than 2007's Michael Clayton, which is not nearly as great a movie as the Oscar folks thought. Still, the last shot is memorable here because it...well, Gilroy doesn't cut away for a split second. That style coupled with some actors who appeared in Michael Clayton prove that Gilroy does love certain things in his movies and won't hesitate to repeat himself.

Duplicity doesn't really repeat anything from Michael Clayton, but it's hard to ignore one parallel with the scripts, which are both heavy on the flashbacks, the former more than the latter. Starring Clive Owen and Julia Roberts as spies in lust or maybe love, Duplicity deals with the double- and triple-crossings Owen's Ray and Roberts' Claire commit while trying to scam two of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world for their own gain. As with any good spy movie, there are plenty of twists, surprises, and the like, and I can easily say that I wasn't expecting the final reveal (though I was certainly suspicious).

Even the best caper films are usually light and frothy in tone, and this film's not any different. Like the other greats, Duplicity is fun to watch and was obviously fun to shoot. Owen and Roberts have far more chemistry here than in their other pairing, 2004's Closer, though the subject matter in the two films is wildly different. The supporting cast, from the big names like Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson (as the rival heads of those pharmaceutical companies) to the character actors like Denis O'Hare and Rick Worthy (once a Cylon!), doesn't flinch and are uniformly excellent.

It's hard to criticize much of Duplicity, though it's a testament to the characters and the lead actors that I very much wanted the two spies to get away with their scam as they'd originally planned. Hopefully, I won't have ruined the film for anyone who's yet to see it, but know this much: the plan hatched by Ray and Claire isn't as easy to implement as they'd hoped. Aside from whatever minor disappointment I have with the ending, there's little fault in the film, which is stylishly shot by Robert Elswit, has some snappy music courtesy of James Newton Howard, and even has one truly suspenseful sequence. Though Gilroy's not using any of the Jason Bourne-style action he's been responsible for previously, I was on the edge of my seat during that sequence (yes, literally).

Owen and Roberts aren't the most perfect match (Roberts did feel a tad off in some of her line readings), but Duplicity is a fun little caper, worth a good watch on a weekend matinee, at the very least.