Review and Movie Summary by Michael The Moviegoer.
Rating= **
Duplicity “Two Rights Make A Wrong”
Tony Gilroy’s previous film was the complex, intriguing and Oscar-nominated big-business thriller “Michael Clayton”. Sadly, “Duplicity” is not “Michael Clayton’s” double. In fact, it doesn’t even feel like it was made by the same filmmaker!
The nearly unrecognizable plot in “Duplicity” couldn’t be more confusing if the reels were projected out of order. Julia Roberts and Clive Owen had great chemistry in “Closer”, but here they can’t even register a blip on the radar.
Gilroy’s screenplay gives the attractive leads some cute dialogue allowing them to play verbal volleyball with Neil Simon-like sarcasm. But once we discover that nearly 5 minutes of well-written words are repeated several times throughout the movie (because it’s a code of some sort) it just gets boring. Before the film is over we can recite their lines along with them like singing the lyrics to a favorite song. It doesn’t make understanding the plot any easier.
“Duplicity” attempts more twists than a pretzel. Unfortunately, we lose interest in plot twists when we can’t identify the plot.
DVD Watch: One of my favorite Julia Roberts movies is “My Best Friends Wedding”. How refreshing it is to see Roberts back together again with Paul Giamatti in “Duplicity”. If you don’t remember Giamatti being in ‘Wedding’, then you weren’t paying attention. A few years before his leading-man status was cemented by “Sideways”, an unknown Paul Giamatti had an important and impressive walk-on role in ‘Wedding’ when, as a bell-boy in a hotel, he asks Julia Roberts not to smoke in the hallway outside her room. Check it out again.
Michael The Moviegoer
