Duplicity

Ray & Claire are spies that are tired of the game; they meet on a chance assignment and continue to pursue each other afterwards until they come up with an idea – the decide to get out of the government game and get into the corporate one – they are going to play a mega corporation and sell one of it’s secrets. All Claire and Ray have to do is find the right company and set up the con, all while trying to learn to trust each other because they’ve fallen in love.

Tony Gilroy quickly came onto my radar with Michael Clayton, and Duplicity is a spectacular follow-up to the Oscar nominated film. It is easy to make a complicated film, but it is hard to make a complicated film that actually makes complete sense and Duplicity makes sense. The film is smart, witty, quirky and utterly planned & effortless.

As I watched Duplicity I kept thinking that something in the film wasn’t clicking, that for all the complications and turns the plot was making that it just wasn’t what it should be. I should not have doubted Tony Gilroy. Everything that I thought was missing, everything that I hoped might be in the movie was in the movie – but it wasn’t revealed until the end. This is a movie that is going to rise higher in people’s esteem on repeated viewings. The last five or so minutes of the film not only give the film an entire other level, but the banter between Ray and Claire is some of the best in the film – while a bit more subtle the lines for me carried much the same importance as the last lines in Some Like It Hot. The ending of this film distinguish it from any heist movie that has come out in the past few decades.

Director & Writer: Tony Gilroy
Ray Koval: Clive Owen
Claire Stenwick: Julia Roberts
Howard Tully: Tom Wilkinson
Richard Garsik: Paul Giamatti
Duke: Denis O’Hare