It's a pity...that James Newton Howard's music score is so relentlessly intrusive and that Gilroy's plotting gets so complicated before everything becomes clear in the end.
Comment
03/27/09
Duplicity (2009)
65
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:166
Fresh:108
Rotten:58
Average Rating:6.3/10
Consensus: Duplicity is well-crafted, smart, and often funny, but it’s mostly more cerebral than visceral and features far too many plot twists.
Australian Theatrical Release:
Mar 19, 2009 Wide
US Box Office: $40,559,930
Synopsis: DUPLICITY is a slick, Soderberghian comic caper in which it’s never exactly clear who is being conned. It’s easy to see that ex-CIA agent Claire Stenwick (Julia Roberts) and former MI6 member Ray... [More]
Starring: Julia Roberts, Clive Owen, Tom Wilkinson, Paul Giamatti
Director: Tony Gilroy
Reviews for Duplicity
Top CriticOnce Gilroy has the film on track with all passengers aboard and accounted for, you do start wondering if he can keep up the momentum. He does -- although so much contrivance is involved that he often runs the risk of leaving you behind.
03/27/09
Top CriticEssentially formulaic fare. Although Julia Roberts is quite good, the love scenes look exactly like what they are: famous people pretending.
03/20/09
Top CriticOn the simplest level, Duplicity is a tribute to the power of performance.
03/20/09
Top CriticThere are nice moments, just not quite enough of them.
03/20/09
Top CriticWhatever the onscreen dilemma for Clive Owen's Ray and Julia Roberts' Claire, for us, it's a no-brainer. This slick and persuasive crime thriller has so much chemistry and chutzpah; we're hooked from the start
03/14/09
Top CriticIt might be saying something that I preferred to see [Giamatti and Wilkinson] in action than the two actual leads of the film.
09/06/09
Duplicity features the sort of story screenwriters dream of crafting in order to show off their aptitude.
08/30/09
The results are mistimed and misshapen, like Lubitsch after a vasectomy
08/25/09
The film's greatest pleasure is in the snappy dialogue Gilroy crafts for the capable duo of Roberts and Owen... [Blu-ray]
08/22/09
You gotta be flawless to tell a story out of sequence. This ain't no Memento. God, Julia is getting old.
08/21/09
It's not unfair to say that Duplicity is Michael Clayton on laughing gas. What's remarkable is that both movies pretty much work.
08/14/09
[Tony] Gilroy may have taken his time honing his voice as a filmmaker, but there's little doubt that he's got it down to a science at this point.
08/01/09
Duplicity is like sitting in a two-hour lecture from a college professor who reads straight from the text and never makes eye contact. Do you know there is an audience here?
06/10/09
This movie wasn't firing on all cylinders despite some of them being great cylinders.
05/31/09
... Plays like a more sophisticated Ocean's Eleven, the extra heft coming from its corporate setting.
05/15/09
Click for full review
05/10/09
'Duplicity' is a cleverly charming and sophisticated film about treacherous people.
05/01/09
It won't receive the critical ballyhoo of his previous film, but where Gilroy's 'Michael Clayton' lacked imagination and surprise, 'Duplicity' is a fun, witty romp.
05/01/09
When it comes to spy thrillers, Tony Gilroy knows the game.
04/30/09
Latest News for Duplicity
July 23, 2009:
RT on DVD: Duplicity, Friday the 13th and MacGyver!
If you're looking for a bit of DVD froth and fun on the couch on a cold winter's night, what could be better than a Julia Roberts/Clive Owen rom-com-caper? The dialogue is... More...
March 19, 2009:
Critics Consensus: I Love You, Man Is A Fine Bromance
This week at the movies, we've got a bromantic comedy (I Love You, Man, starring Paul Rudd and Jason Segel), ominous numerology (Knowing, starring Nicolas Cage and Rose Byrne),... More...
March 19, 2009:
Box Office Guru Preview: Cage, Roberts, and Rudd Battle For #1 Spot
Three new films roll into North American multiplexes and for the first time in ages, all three have a realistic chance of claiming the number one spot. Comedies have been... More...
March 14, 2009:
Duplicity teams masters of mutual deceit in sizzling make up sex for spies, Julia squirming her way through one night stand pretend amnesia with toe rings, and a different kind of screwing of flabby corporate cutthroats in designer suits. 
More...
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