Review of Duplicity

Duplicity (2009)

Director: Tony Gilroy

Cast: Clive Owen, Julia Roberts, Tom Wilkinson, Paul Giamatti

Time: 125 min.

Rating:

How can you not like Clive Owen? How can you not like Julia Roberts? (Even I’m starting to like her.) And how can you not like Duplicity? It’s a black comedy. It’s a romantic comedy. It’s a satirical espionage thriller. And it’s an entertaining treaty on modern relationships.

Ray Koval (Owen) and Claire Stenwick (Roberts), two spies working for opposing government agencies, met in Dubai and had a fling that was really Claire’s ploy for stealing information from Ray. They meet in New York City five years later and find themselves performing corporate espionage for the same company. That Dubai affair seems to cause some nasty friction between them, but that hatred just might be a ploy for something more.

Duplicity has many strong points, and perhaps its strongest is the storytelling by Gilroy, who also claims the writing credit. (Unlike many directors, he seems to have genuine scriptwriting and storytelling talent.) As the plot moves forward and just when things become confusing, flashbacks begin to explain what has transpired between Ray and Claire in the five years since they Dubai fling.

But more than just filling in plot details, the flashbacks expose the subtly evolving relationship between the two spies. He is infatuated with her; she can’t stand him. He extracts his revenge; she becomes infatuated with him. But is he really getting revenge? And is she really infatuated? They can’t quite tell, and neither can we, because they simply can’t trust each other.

And that is what makes Duplicity a great movie about human relationships—they openly discuss their distrust of each other, and they openly confess to holding back their affection (or even admitting their affection) because they know they can’t trust each other. Their refusal to trust is what everyone in a relationship experiences, but unlike everyone else, Ray and Claire can express their distrust because they know they don’t trust. And knowing their share an inability trust means they know each other so well.

So Ray and Claire progress with their plan, but they always keep watch on the other, testing the other’s loyalty, never fully committing to the relationship, and always having an escape plan. And yet, despite all of their doubts and distrust, they just can’t quite quit because of their affection for each other, even if they constantly fear that affection isn’t returned. They are the average man and woman hopelessly in love but too scared and distrustful to commit even though a commitment is something they desperately hope for.

As equally amusing as this satirical exploration of relationships is the satirical skewering of corporations obsessed with market dominance. In a world with only one political superpower, corporations have replaced warring nations, and like psychopathic heads of state, the CEOs of two opposing company’s—Richard Garsik (Giamatti) and Howard Tully (Wilkinson)—engage in espionage, counter-espionage, and counter-counter-espionage as they try to crush each other economically.

What accentuates the satire is the companies’ field—health and beauty products. They aren’t producing military hardware or some essential food staple like corn or rice. They are just making toothpaste and shampoo, and they will do whatever is necessary to reign supreme. Their obsession over the insignificant is a wonderful commentary on consumer-driven market capitalism, especially during the current economic crisis when consumers are supposedly helping to keep the economy from recovering by refusing to buy anything.

Of course, satire isn’t enough to hold a film (or any story) together, but the chemistry between Owen and Roberts is. That alone makes Duplicity worth a watch. The dialogue Gilroy has written for them is just delightful, and he has given their on-screen relationship a fun role-reversal twist by having Ray be wholly obsessed with Claire, while she takes a completely unsentimental approach to him.

Surprisingly, there really isn’t negative about the film. The acting is solid. The script is realistic and funny. The storytelling is handled perfectly. The plot is tight. But sadly, the movie is little more than suspenseful entertainment. It isn’t superficial because of its satirical nature, but it ultimately isn’t emotionally moving.

Perhaps the best way to describe Duplicity is to call it a blend of Ocean’s Eleven and The Lord of War—a blend of pure entertainment and brilliant satire. But in this case, the idea is brilliant; the film isn’t. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy it.