Duplicity (DVD)

It’s nice to have Julia Roberts back on screen. I know a lot of people don’t like her, but with her breezy charm it’s nevertheless easy to see why she became the biggest female star on the planet, and while she took time off when she first had children, it’s nice to see her back making movies. The main problem with her comeback so far is that she hasn’t picked the best of movies to appear in. Things like Charlie’s Wilson’s War and Fireflies In The Garden haven’t been bad, but they’ve been nothing special, and Duplicity continues the run.

In fact almost the entire success of Duplicity rides of the charm of Roberts and Clive Owen, who have great chemistry and make a very good screen pair. Watching them sparking off each other is tremendous fun, and they take what could otherwise have been an overly complex and occasionally clunky spy romp and  turn it into something far more charming and witty.

Claire (Roberts) and Ray (Owen) are spies working for rival pharmaceuticals companies, both of which want to be the first to patent a formula for a multi-million dollar concoction. While at first it’s purely a case of one company trying to keep it safe while the other tries to steal it, the attraction between Ray and Claire begins to build, and it’s revealed that maybe they’ve found a far more profitable way to exploit both companies.

To be honest, you’re always going to have trouble making a movie about big, underhanded companies, none of which are very pleasant. Morally even Claire and Ray have no better motivation than cash. Normally with heist films, there’s a side you want to win, but here everyone’s blatantly in the wrong. In fact it’s almost impressive that thanks to its complexity, pace and the presence of Roberts and Owen, you barely notice how morally bankrupt absolutely everyone in the movie is. 

They sort of try and deal with that in the end, and there is a large part of the movie dealing with the fact Claire and Ray’s relationship is partly based on the fact they’re the only people who would understand the deviousness of a spy’s mind. However, this is not a film you want to start thinking about, or otherwise you start to realise how the whole movie is essentially a giant macguffin involving ethically corrupt people, none of whom have any real redeeming features, other than Roberts and Owen’s basic charm.

The special features amount to a single audio commentary with writer/director Tony Gilroy and editor/co-producer John Gilroy.  It’s a pretty good commentary, with the Gilroys very pleasant company, giving lots of interesting behind-the-scenes info about how they went about making the movie, finding the locations, shooting it and writing it. It’s a lot better than most commentaries and well worth a listen.

However that’s your lot. As Duplicity is slightly lacking in bonus features and you’re unlikely to watch it more than once, this is probably a movie that’s more worth a rent than a purchase. However it is all fairly charming, exciting and Owen and Roberts are great, so just enjoy the ride and don’t spend a second thinking about what you’ve just seen or otherwise the whole things disappears into a morally bankrupt mess.

Overall Verdict: It may have its problems, but as long as you ignore the morality and go with the breezy charm of Roberts and Owen, Duplicity ain’t a bad watch.

Special Features:
Audio Commentary With Writer/Director Tony Gilroy and Editor/Co-Producer John Gilroy

Reviewer: Tim Isaac