Mountain FogDUPLICITY: PLAYING ITSELF
September 22nd 2009 06:16
Screenwriter Tony Gilroy has had such a prolific recent career behind the typewriter it’s little wonder he started branching out into directing. And he’s made a half decent fist of it too: 2007’s Michael Clayton was a cleverly cold corporate thriller, packing a crisp originality. In fact, the only problem with Michael Clayton was the quality of its writing. Gilroy penned a story about redemption based upon a character whose past you knew too little about.
A similar problem haunts Gilroy’s latest directorial effort, Duplicity. This is slick stuff, and its romantic spy caper slant is significantly different to Michael Clayton, but it’s let down by structural problems that slowly strangle the life from this initially giddy piece of celluloid.
The story is almost like Mr & Mrs Smith without the steroids or the glowering irony. Julia Roberts and Clive Owen play competing agents, Claire Stenwick and Ray Koval. Formerly government operatives – her CIA, him MI6 – and briefly lovers, the two now find themselves on opposite sides of a corporate war between rival pharmaceutical companies. As the underhanded competition between their respective employers heats up over a revolutionary new product, professional loners Claire and Ray engage in a series of schemes and double-crosses while contending with the fact that their mutual attraction could ultimately jeopardise their goal of fleecing either their employers or each other.
It’s quite clever stuff initially, with Gilroy using a growing concern about the practices of big pharmaceutical companies as a background for an efficient set up. The early scenes race along, and Claire and Ray’s encounters zing with electricity, a credit to Gilroy’s skills as a director.
But as the film wears on it also wears out. A big problem is the increasing frequency of flashbacks to previous meetings between the protagonists. Required to a certain extent for the purposes of exposition, from the middle of the film onwards they begin to drain the narrative of its early propulsion, and by the final third the audience is perhaps preparing for a lynching.
Not helping is Gilroy’s obsession with the double and triple crossing. At a certain point the device itself becomes predictable, and the later revelations are more likely to incite groans rather than gasps, with the final twist depressingly predictable.
All this skulduggery manages to derail the protagonists also. Claire and Ray are never standing on any solid ground as characters so it becomes hard to invest in their scheming, gaming ways. At certain points, you can’t be sure that they’re anything more than a couple of arseholes simply trying to out screw the other out of millions of dollars, and while this may keep the audience guessing, it also keeps them at arm’s length. In this respect, there are times when Duplicity becomes a grim reminder of the tortured Closer, in which Roberts and Owen first starred together.
Julia Roberts and Clive Owen will always make for an appealing couple.
Thankfully, it’s that star power that often sees Duplicity through its weaker moments. There’s no denying the energy of Roberts or Owen, with the former putting her subtle powers of expression to good use. Owen, on the other hand, hasn’t had this much fun in ages. Having in recent times been stuck playing grim and grizzled protagonists, it’s enjoyable seeing him stretch his charm out in the sun; it’s an under appreciated part of his charisma. The two leads are supplied with plenty of able support, particularly from the precise Tom Wilkinson and livewire Paul Giamatti as the competing Big Pharma bosses.
Further helping the film are the impressive technical merits – including some classy cinematography from Robert Elswit – and a wealth of subtext. Indeed, Duplicity has plenty to say about the demented nature of modern relationships, both at the personal and corporate level. It’s a nice touch, giving the proceedings some sober underpinnings despite the often-madcap nature of their slick surface.
It’s perhaps this intelligence the film attempts to bring to the table of modern Hollywood that deserves a pat on the back. But in its quest to run rings around the audience, Duplicity ends up distancing itself from them instead, leaving it with a second half that fights an uphill battle for a viewer in serious danger of no longer caring.
Check out the trailer for Duplicity below:
| 78 |
| Vote |
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
...and that was meant to say 'under appreciated part of his charisma' btw - if it didn't make sense!
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
I love Gilroy's work and am a Clive Owen devotee. i dig on a smart spy story and everything seems so promising. BUT it has Julia Roberts in it who destroys the frame with her physical exaggerations and forced exuberance. Anytime she was onscreen in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind the whole thing stopped dead with self conscious posing and aside from her the rest was fantastic.....nup still cant watch this one even after your review.