Claire (Julia Roberts) works for the CIA and Ray (Clive Owen) works for MI6. Originally hooking up at a party at the American Embassy in Dubai, the pair develop a sort of love/hate relationship with each other and finally realize that government work doesn't pay very well. So, to provide for their future (together or apart) they choose to join the cutthroat world of corporate espionage - which turns out to be at least as dangerous (and possibly more) as working for their former agencies. As much as I'm sorry to say it - that description makes this sound better than it actually is.To be fair, it wasn't awful. But it was a problem that in addition to the corporate espionage angle, the movie was a sort of romantic comedy - a problem because I just didn't feel that Roberts and Owen had much connection. I will confess right off that I've never been a big fan of Julia Roberts. Others think she's great. She doesn't really do a whole lot for me. She's OK - but here there was no spark between her and Owen; no chemistry. Their relationship was less than believable. The structure of the movie didn't appeal to me. That opening in Dubai took place five years before the main setting of the movie, and from that point on the movie jumps back and forth from the present to the past, unfolding the background of the story bit by bit. But even as it was all unfolded, I found myself increasingly confused. I like a good mystery, and some twists and turns, but trying to keep track of everything here was difficult. Who was working for whom? Who was working with whom? Or against whom? Or? I suppose if I had found the basic story more interesting I'd have been more inclined to put effort into keeping everything straight, but I didn't find it interesting. I was actually surprised to check and discover that there was still almost an hour left in the movie, when I thought it was reaching its end. There are a few humourous points in the movie - mostly revolving around the whole corporate espionage angle. ("Is it a cream or a lotion? Which is it?" Garsik demands as a report on a competitor's product is given to him.) To be honest, I found a lot of that believable in an exaggerated sort of way. But the movie as a whole just didn't appeal to me. (3/10)

Duplicity is a solid action/romance film that offers a little bit of intrigue. It boasts two solid leads in Clive Owen and Julia Roberts. This movie is your ordinary early spring thriller that will certainly divide audiences. However, I found this to be a good piece of work that offers nothing but two hours of pure fun.Tony Gilroy's film has a complicated plot, maybe more complex than it should be. For your average spring thriller, this film makes you think a lot. It's about two spies who work for each others enemy's corporations and they have a bit of a romantic history and they pair up to pull off one complicated con.The acting is pretty good thanks to the two leads. Clive and Julia actually have good chemistry with each other and they seem like they are having fun in their respective roles. They don't show their best of their abilities, but with this kind of film, they don't need to.Overall, this is a good, but not great crime thriller. It may be too complicated for it's own good, but it's still fun ride. It offers up a good mixture of romance, action, and comedy. It also doesn't offer anything new, but then what does these days? I rate this film 8/10.

If there is such a thing like a film to smart to enjoy 'Duplicity' written and directed by Tony Gilroy would certainly qualify. It is not that scriptwriter Gilroy misses smart stories in his CV - he wrote the 'Bourne' series (based on Robert Ludlum's novels), 'Proof of Life' and 'Devil's Advocate'each of them smart. The problem with Duplicity is that he did not find a better director than Tony Gilroy to direct a script which has many surprises, hidden angles, flashbacks and twists but too few of them are being turn into moments of good cinema suspense or emotions.Duplicity is the story of two ex-spies (one CIA - Julia Roberts, one MI-6 Clive Owen) who go private and plan a big scam by getting hired by two competing moguls in the shampoo industry. In a world where eavesdropping is the rule, where nobody trusts anybody, where every word hides a lie which hides an even bigger lie being a couple of spies and lovers means first of all trusting each other? Is trust possible? this is the permanent question and the answer is so many times no that when time comes to answer yes the answer is simply not credible.The two lead actors create chemistry and they cannot act bad, but chemistry and good acting is not enough, especially as both Roberts and Owen look or are made to look in this film a little bit beyond the peaks of their respective sex-appeals. This may be intentional, as even sexy spies start getting old at some point, and this is a credible situation of life, but simply does not fit the profile of an action movie. On the other side the twists and layers and flashbacks in time are so many and so often that at some point in time I lost interest in watching the action, and believe me, this seldom happens to me in an action movie. Duplicity simply tries to hard to be smart, and the style of director Gilroy does not make justice to the scriptwriter Gilroy.

Good news and bad news.First the good news: I didn't pay AUS$10 to see this movie at the local cinema.The bad news is that I did pay AUS$8.99 for the DVD.What on earth induced the cast to agree to appear in this dog? Is Ms Roberts really that short of cash? I can only think that, because they were able to read the script (there *was* a script?) they could see how it all worked out at the end. Then they (not, unfortunately, the audience) might - just might - be able to retrospectively piece together the disconnected storyline that came before the denouement.Just because a director knows how a storyline develops doesn't give him the OK to make it so disjointed as to be unintelligible and then call it intellectual, challenging, clever or even interesting. It's just disjointed. Period. One could throw in self indulgent for good measure.There's nothing wrong with constructing a plot line that doesn't have the clues jumping out in your face - of course that's an essential part of a good movie - but to use multiple flashbacks covering most of the developed world in random time order as this movie does is just insulting.My wife and I sat through this ghastly mishmash of a film right to the bitter end: every so often a voice from the other chair would say "Do you have any idea what's going on?" and sometimes "Is it almost over?" I won't make any comment on the cast, the acting, the cinematography and so on - *nothing* could save this moronic effort.