It's been months since I've done any film reviews! From time to time the different studios send me film preview tickets, and I invariably go along armed with good intentions of reviewing them, but when I get home there always seems to be another fashion story to chase down or model to write about. I was sent a preview ticket to Duplicity last week, and I thought to myself, why not put this one to good use? So I called up my old friend Graig Douglas, head tailor of Working Style Parnell and biggest film geek I've ever met, and sent him along to review it for me...
Duplicity trailer screengrab
The queen of the 90s Rom Com returns to the silver screen in a leading-lady capacity for the first time since 2004’s Closer and brings her co-star Clive Owen along for the ride. While it is clear she was aiming for something different she could sink her teeth into, the obvious question is – will audiences buy Julia as a globe-trotting, ex-CIA, corporate intelligence agent? The short answer is no.
Duplicity trailer screengrab
This isn’t helped by the fact that Roberts and Owen’s characters have basically had personality transplants from the same deceitful, distrustful and disingenuous emotional retards they played in Closer. With a thin plot about stealing corporate secrets, this film rests solely on the relationship of its two leads and theirs is a relationship that fluctuates from engaging to utterly frustrating. From the outset their relationship is built on lies and deceit and it makes for a fairly compelling first act but becomes stagnant quickly and, when the two inevitably profess their love for each other, dull.
Duplicity trailer screengrab
The story concerns itself with the subterfuge and rivalry of two warring mega-conglomerates whose CEOs, the film’s opening title sequence will subtly tell us, really dislike one another. They want to steal each other’s secrets and one-up each other at any cost and have no qualms in hiring the duplicitous couple to that end.
Duplicity trailer screengrab
It should be noted that Owen gives the same one-note performance of suave English gent that he has in every film he has done since making it big in Hollywood. While not the weakest link, he doesn’t bring anything particularly revolutionary or exciting to the mix. His stoic visage and deliberate delivery make him a passable excuse for an ex-MI6 agent gone corporate. But for someone who apparently didn’t want to play James Bond, he seems to have done his darndest to find superspy roles that parallel the exploits of the martini swilling womaniser. He has another film, The International, about banking espionage that releases here in a month’s time and judging by the trailer alone it seems to be more of the same. Unfortunately, Julia Roberts herself lacks the gravitas to convincingly pull off the role of a CIA veteran, and very little she does throughout the film substantiates the character at all. Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson enjoy chewing the scenery as only they can do as the two egomaniacal Chief Executives.
Tony Gilroy - Popcorn Reel
I am a big believer in judging a film on its own merits, not comparing apples and oranges in order to rank films against one another by an arbitrary number. Every film, no matter the genre, should be measured against its own potential and it is here that Duplicity really let me down. The film is scripted and directed by Tony Gilroy who wrote the three Bourne films and penned and directed the fantastic Michael Clayton. Gilroy knows a thing or two about character-driven espionage caper films but Duplicity feels like a movie trying to do too much with too little and acts a little smarter than it really is. Far too light and shy on details to be considered a serious thriller and simply not romantic or comedic enough to fit into that genre, I feel a lot of audiences will leave dissatisfied.
The glamorous locations are underused, and the forays into the real and intriguing world of corporate espionage are few and sensationalised. Instead, flashbacks leave us loosely entertained as they detail how the couple’s distrust grows as they switch allegiances back and forth and back again. However, by the time the credits roll and the cheap yet inevitable plot twist has been revealed, it all feels very shallow and anticlimactic. And while this twist does deliver the audience something of a vindication, ultimately the film’s two main characters are so unlikeable and dull that we end up not really caring whether they fail or succeed.
In conclusion...
Lively enough to begin with, but ultimately an unthrilling thriller with characters difficult to care about and too smart for their own good. Flatlines at about the two-third mark and even a somewhat witty but obvious plot twist is unable to resuscitate it.
Isaac Likes Rating:
3 out of 5
Duplicity opens today in New Zealand cinemas.
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