Review of Duplex (2003) by Johannes H — 12 Sep 2007

The movie begins like any romantic comedy: the first minutes don't exactly go straight to the action nor give any huge expectations, but you are open-minded to see where the movie is going to develop. But after the first few minutes the irritation starts. Time after time you're confronted by the utterly stupid, illogical and helpless behaviour of the starring couple. I mean, if there is absolutely no way you could imagine any one you know to behave like the way these two behave, how are you supposed to enjoy any of it? And when in addition this submitting stupidity (and it's not like it's a Dumb & Dumber kind of stupidity, since these two are supposed to be like a normal young couple) leads into a devastating mishap one after another, the irritation accumulates to a level I don't remember experiencing in any other movie.

By the time about one third of the movie has passed, it becomes obvious that there isn't going to be any change. All you will see is irritating scene one after another, seasoned with some of the worst examples of poo humour ever. Depending on the point of view the ending may bring some consolidation to the otherwise crappy content, but for me the only consolation was the relief I got when the movie actually ended.

It's not like I couldn't enjoy a dark comedy (Very Bad Things for example is a quite good one), but since Duplex offers practically no plot to follow nor characters to identify yourself with, and the jokes are mostly artificial, predictable, unfunny and even disgusting at times, and since the only real substance is the misfortune of the main characters, there is really no way I could recommend this to anyone.