Duplicity
Directed by Tony Gilroy
Runtime: 125 min.
Funny how crusading liberal movie stars love to play crooks—such as
Julia Roberts’ role as Claire Stenwick, a double-dealing CIA agent in
Duplicity. Like George Clooney, Denzel Washington, Brad Pitt and Matt
Damon, Roberts doesn’t seem to realize her own duplicity in selling the
romance of greed. Duplicity takes movie-star hypocrisy even further:
Claire competes with former MI6 agent Roy Koval (Clive Owens) as a
private-sector antagonist, then as a lover.
Deceit and
sexual disloyalty define their relationship, and writer-director Tony
Gilroy seals it with a final-reel kiss. His own duplicitous conceit
ensures that an exposé of political and commercial corruption will not
extend to Hollywood. Duplicity should have been titled Venality.
Gilroy
again ransacks 1970s cinema in the attempt to sell hip cynicism as he
did in Michael Clayton. First, Gilroy rips off Three Days of the Condor
and Network—touchstones of glib politics. But impenetrable plot
convolutions involving competitive hair product manufacturers come
right out of 1973’s The Sting.This lousy amalgam recalls Steven
Soderbergh’s Oceans franchise, offering outdated escapism and celebrity
worship.
That’s why Gilroy reunites Roberts and Owen (from the
misanthropic non-hit Closer) in roles that imitate Brangelina in the
wildly unethical Mr. & Mrs. Smith, yet with picaresque names like
Chinatown.
A third-rate director, Gilroy evinces a shallow
grasp of pop mythology. He stages a thong joke as if it were a Supreme
Court interrogation. His contrived spy/love/business story tests one’s
tolerance for “fun” music cues, “excitement” music cues; “clever”
narrative tropes (“18 Months Earlier,” “12 Months Earlier,” “Five Weeks
Later,” etc. ); meaningless split-screen montages; and shameless
romantic close-ups.The closing clinch between Claire and Roy is bland
because Roberts is past her prime (My Best Friend’s Wedding).
Looking
as tired as she did in Ocean’s Eleven, Roberts doesn’t convey a single
sincere emotion.What good’s a romantic star who can’t inspire fantasy?
Or whose only fantasy left is hawking luxe and irresponsibility? By
opening this week, Duplicity works to dispel the Bernard Madoff
scandal.The likely box-office success for its sexy-funny celebration of
big business conniving and domestic distrust only means that Roberts,
Owen and Gilroy have made off with the public’s trust.
