CINEMA: Duplicity

It’s been a few years since we last saw Julia Roberts and Clive Owen together on screen in Closer, but they should make movies together more often because their pairing brings out the best in both of them.

Duplicity is really an industrial espionage heist movie, with quite a lot of sexual entrapment, double dealing, murky morals and flits between New York, London, Rome and Miami. Director/writer Tony Gilroy then manages to complicate an already labyrinthine plot by cutting up the timeline so you’re never sure if scenes are proceeding chronologically or in a totally random fashion.

Owen is Ray, an MI6 agent who, while working undercover in the Gulf, falls for the honey trap set by CIA officer Claire (Roberts). During their first encounter she drugs him and steals all his surveillance – something he swears to get back at her for. So when they next meet up and realise they are both working on the same case – one huge pharmaceutical firm trying to steal the formula to a new wonder product from another giant company – they appear to be appalled.  But are things really as they seem, or could at least one of the pair be a double agent?  And what of the CEOs of the two companies (fabulous performances from Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson), whose personal rivalry could hide all manner of secrets?

So, lies, deceit and sleight of hand conspire to produce a film that has some fantastic location work and dialogue, real gutsy acting and a plot so confusing you’ll soon give up trying to work out who’s playing who, or what the hell is actually going on. That said, it’s the kind of movie that doesn’t really have to make any sense to entertain – it kind of carries you along for the ride. Now it doesn’t really matter that Owen never got to play Bond; in this movie and in The International he’s played Bond-lite – and that’s probably close enough as far as he is concerned.      Dee Pilgrim