Review of Duplicity (2009) by Zyga — 20 Mar 2009

Wow. All these effusive reviews make me sense that the newspapers are putting out in exchange for Uni's P&A dollars. Have you ever WITNESSED such an expensive campaign for a movie NOT made for fanboys??? Duplicity is okay.

Just okay. Opaque shenanigans with less-than-clever "repartee" from two reassuringly familiar stars with by-the-book chemistry provide a few chuckles, semi-pleasurable confusion, and satisfying cinematic vistas.

You could probably swap out the entire second act's script with almost any 70's industrial-complex thriller riddled with random lines from an 80's work-a-day romcom or two and not really notice the difference in the plot.

The surreal constructions of non-linear sequences are animated in pseudo-Mamet fashion, given even less dimension within the painful constriction of Duplicity's PG-rated world. Julia Roberts' and Clive Owens' characters meet in postcard locations, debate each other's personal trust issues, fade out on the implied sexual act, then retreat to their assigned corners while we are intermittently entertained by stellar secondary characters-- many of whom we're not sure who THEY really are or who they work for.

Even though we're supposed to like the central conniving couple, and root for THEIR greed over that of the corporate humpies', the ending is so justly anti-climactic that it perhaps teaches a poignant lesson after all.

The inevitable success of this film will make most of us realize just how undercompensated WE are when it comes to Hollywood's distribution of grown-up fare.