Duplicity

A forgotten gem you should unearth

Duplicity (2009)

This is the kind of movie that releases outside the main movie seasons (it came out in a March) and slides in and out of theaters with no real goal beyond covering its costs. The quality of such movies can therefore be widely variable. The scripts can be surprisingly fun, and are presented by actors who need a quick little something to fill some time and keep their credits current. It’s the kind of place to find will-take-any-part character actors like Paul Giamatti, who need to pay their rent. And it’s the kind of place to find A-listers with time to kill like Julia Roberts, just doing what she wants because she can.

When films like this succeed, they succeed largely because there’s no big-budget tentpole pressure on the performances of everyone involved. The smaller budget means it doesn’t have to do stratospheric business to be pronounced successful. That gives everyone room to breathe and stretch and enjoy themselves. And everybody’s enjoying themselves here. Julia Roberts and Clive Owen play rival espionage operatives turned corporate spies. Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson play corporate greedlords locked in a titanic battle for the ages over bath soap and other household products. Zany mayhem ensues.

It’s delicious heist-movie stuff, with nifty non-chronological storytelling flourishes that keep the twists coming until moments before the credits roll. It’s huge fun watching smart people being smart, and Roberts and Owen have great chemistry here. Their scenes together are effortlessly cool, and if you ever wondered what Clive Owen might have looked like as James Bond, this film might be your huckleberry. 

4 stars of 5: I liked it, and might watch it again.