DVD Review: Duplicity

Watching Duplicity one cannot help but be struck by the onscreen chemistry of its two stars. We know, of course, that Julia Roberts and Clive Owen are just acting. What is unique about the film, though, is that it forces us to wonder whether their characters aren't just acting, too.

The film flashes forward and back in time, revealing aspects of its characters' past, only to return to scenes later and ask us to reevaluate what we have seen. Roberts and Owen play spies with a history. After having left their respective agencies in favor of the private sector, they meet again and are forced to work together as part of an elite corporate espionage plot. Are they enemies destined to clash, co-conspirators in their own game, or two individuals out to play one another? We can never be sure.

The film aspires to be both a great spy film and a great romance. The result is romance between its stars of which neither the lovers nor the audience can be completely certain. This could easily grow frustrating, but it does not. Instead, it adds an extra spin to moments of steaminess and suspense alike.

I think you'll live Duplicity if you like:

The Sting (1973)

This mother of all con stories reunites two of the greatest stars in the history of American cinema, Paul Newman and Robert Redford, after their first pairing in 1969's Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid. Newman plays a seasoned con artist who brings the younger Redford under his wing and into his scheming. The Sting fulfills the cardinal rule of con films in that it manages to take us along for the ride while duping us all along.

Ocean's 11 (2001)

Steven Soderbergh's remake of the Rat Pack classic manages to be a solid con story and a genuinely fun film. George Clooney (I'm told he's vaguely attractive.) stars as Danny Ocean, an ex-con who puts together a crack team of criminals to take down a Vegas casino and, while he's at it, when back his ex-wife (Julia Roberts). The film sings with chemistry, both between Clooney and Roberts and the team of cons. Once again, the film brings the audience in on the deception, while misleading us for much of its climax.

Out of Sight (1998)

This first collaboration of the aforementioned Clooney and Soderbergh pulls off the greatest scam in film history, making like Jennifer Lopez...for all 123 minutes of it. In truth, this is less of a con film than The Sting or Ocean's. What it has in common with Duplicity, however, is a relationship between its stars that is built as much on hidden agendas as it is on attraction.

The screenplay by Scott Frank is adapted from the novel by one of my personal heroes, Elmore Leonard. Leonard's quick wit and sharp dialogue is evident in the final product, and, like his fiction, the film sports an amazing cast of side characters. This is a really fun movie. I'm not conning you.