Duplicity (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Satisfactory
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Standard
How does it compare to similar films?	Satisfactory

Advantages:	It's a slick Hollywood espionage thriller .  .  .
Disadvantages:	It's less than the sum of its parts .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Claire Stenwick is a former CIA agent employed by a corporate giant to protect their intellectual property, while her former lover Ray Koval is ex-MI6. Together they hatch a plan to bag themselves a cool forty million dollars. All they have to do is steal a formula with the ability to revolutionise the cosmetics industry. But they aren’t the only ones out to get the information; competing CEOs Howard Tully and Dick Garsik will fight tooth and claw to get the formula and put the other out of business. Ray gets a job with Garsik’s company handling security and comes up with an ingenious scheme that should see them walking away with the wonder-product and making a fortune. What could be simpler – if the slippery spies could actually trust each other?

“Michael Clayton” writer-director Tony Gilroy returns with another twisty little tale of a rather different order. This one is far less serious than his last project, employing the same jigsaw narrative that shows us the main characters at various stages throughout their relationship. He shows us key meetings and allows us to infer one meaning before he pulls the rug out from under us and reveals a different path. He does this several times, creating cross after double-cross. His style is slick and very Hollywood, as he uses every trick at his disposal to hoodwink the audience. So we shuttle about in the timeline, seeing the characters delivering the same lines to each other in various scenarios as their relationship is developed. We also see the same events from slightly different viewpoints, building a fuller picture of what’s going on until we know the whole story. Gilroy employs split-screens to show different characters at the same time, or to show montages of events occurring simultaneously. He cross-cuts between characters to show their reactions to the same events (such as Tully’s speech being read buy him and his competitor) or to compare and contrast lives (as with Claire and Ray). He boils down the character development and enmity between Tully and Garsik to a single scene in which they indulge in slow-motion fisticuffs on a rainy airport runway. It’s an effective device that ups the ante in terms of comedy as well as character development.

The continent-hopping required by the narrative adds a sense of glamour to the events, as do the various gadgets the former spooks use in their games of cat-and-mouse. However Gilroy gives a tourist’s-eye view of every location, using what appears to be stock footage and making it feel like they’ve been funded by the local tourist boards. But he keeps the pacing frenetic, never dwelling on anything too long so we constantly feel as though we’re being wrong-footed, even swirling his cameras around the players so we feel slightly dizzy. It’s no mean feat that he manages to keep viewers engaged throughout the hundred-and-twenty-five minute running-time, so it doesn’t feel that long.

Gilroy’s screenplay is tightly plotted but insubstantial. It can best be described as a romp, with the two leads constantly pulling the wool over each other’s eyes. There are dozens of twists and turns as they and every other character tries to trick their way into a fortune. So you never know who’s working for whom and what anyone’s agenda is. But there isn’t much depth to the story – the film revolves around Ray and Claire’s scam and it’s a case of cross and double-cross ad infinitum.

The characterisation is similarly slight. Everyone is smart and savvy, using their wiles to wheedle their way into positions where they stand to gain the most. Claire and Ray have backgrounds in espionage, but they aren’t the only ones skilled in subterfuge. Each has their own team dedicated to sneaking around in search of useful information and virtually everybody lies at some point to get what they want. But the leads come across as likeable con-artists who are merely exploiting other people’s greed. It is Richard Garsik who is the real villain of the piece – a paranoid, obsessive, nit-picking weasel of a man driven by his greed and completely devoid of morals. His competitor Howard Tully isn’t much better, but he is stealthier and less obviously conniving. All of the peripheral players come across as pawns in a game, whether they realise it or not. The script is full of snappy banter – the kind of highly polished spy-speak that only comes out of the mouths of Hollywood stars. That may be why some of the Americanisms don’t quite trip off the tongue of British star Clive Owen.

Clive Owen seems to be on a mission to prove that he could have played James Bond after being passed over for the part. Ray Koval is another of the super-spy-light variety roles. To be fair he’s suave and smooth and shares a nice sparky chemistry with his on-screen love interest and you can tell the cogs are always whirring. But he’s a bit too smug on occasion, so you want him to get his comeuppance.

Julia Roberts plays a bit harder than usual as Claire Stenwick, so you can buy into her being a mercenary ex-spy because she’s clearly out for what she can get and always has a plan about how to go about it. She’s very professional and her work spills into her personal life thanks to her inability to trust anyone. She comes across as very efficient and calculating, so of the two leads you trust her less.

Paul Giamatti is clearly having a field day as Dick Garsik – he pulls out all the stops to deliver a character riddled with tics. He spends most of the movie either plotting with sweaty-palmed glee or absolutely apoplectic with rage. It’s hardly a subtle turn, but it is effective and Giammati fully inhabits the role of the pedantic, paranoid obsessive who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. And the whole thing is topped off with an unhealthy does of hubris you just know will be his undoing. Gilroy favourite Tom Wilkinson returns as Garsik’s opposite number Howard Tully, looking every inch the bureaucrat, although he struggles a little with the American accent. He also has moments of unbridled rage, but is generally more controlled. However, we don’t see that much of him, so it’s difficult to get the full measure of the character.

The original music by James Newton Howard dispenses with his usual full-blooded orchestral arrangements in favour of an altogether more idiosyncratic style. The score owes more to the spy movies of the 60s with its use of sneaky (often wood block) percussion in traditional spy movie rhythms. He employs bongo-heavy funk for the opening moments of the film that rises to a crescendo and sets the pace for a playful style of music. There are uses of jazz piano and brass with samba rhythms and tango rhythms with accordion that reflect the idea that this is all a big dance for the central protagonists. There are complex arrangements for the espionage itself and many individual motifs for specific characters or scenarios, so the sound-scapes feel rather busy, but overall the music fits the film and its sense of fun.

“Duplicity” is a frothy confection that plays out like a spy-cum-date movie. The direction is smart and sprightly, almost covering up the fact that there is hardly any plot with its tricksy plotting and relentless pace. The central scheme is nicely knotty and the main characters are likeable enough. The performances are slick and starry and the actors are obviously enjoying their work. However, enjoyable as it may be, it is less than the sum of its parts because once you get past all the rug-pulling there’s nothing much underneath. So while it may make you smile the first time round, it won’t be massively re-watchable once the scam has been unravelled. I’d give it a go on DVD, but I’d rent instead of buying it.