At the Movies with Fatwayne

What a lovely film in both location shots and stars. Scenes in London, Rome, Dubai and New York are a joy to watch as are the two leads, namely Clive Owen and Julia Roberts. I have to tell you that Ms. Roberts has never looked better and is indeed in her prime both physically and career wise. I have to confess that I am not a fan of Julia but I am going to have to rethink things just a bit! As for Clive, the ladies should have no problem gazing at him over the two hour running time of this movie.

There are two other actors that demand to be mentioned by the power of their performances. They are Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson who play CEOs of competing corporate giants. The opening scene where each of their large company jets are facing each other and the two CEOs get into a physical altercation with their teams of VPs looking on is hilarious. It is staged in a style that makes you believe this is the way it could happen. Two older guys who can barely touch their toes squaring off, shin kicking and bear hugging! What a hoot!

Ray Koval (Owen) is an ex MI6 agent and Claire Stenwick (Roberts) is a former CIA officer. They are both now in the world of industrial spying working for opposite entities. Well, maybe they are. Through a series of confusing flashbacks we are acquainted with their history, both romantically and career wise. They decide that by working together they could put themselves in a position to steal any new products developed by their employers and sell them to the highest bidder.

The real problem that these two have is that they don’t trust each other. This forms the basis for the sexual friction and comic interludes between them. Ray has an especially hard time believing Claire since the last time he saw her she did him wrong as evidenced by this quote when he finally catches up with her “you charm me, seduce me and screw me and then you drug me and ransack my hotel room. And how sick is this, the last thing I remember before I passed out was how much I liked you!” Not the start of a meaningful relationship in my opinion.

In spite of all this history our two spies fall in love but there is always that undercurrent of suspicion just below the surface. Claire asks Ray “if I told you that I loved you, would you believe me?” To which Ray responds “if you told me or if I believed you?”

This being a fun movie to watch, albeit a little confusing, you might assume that the outcome would work out for Ray and Claire. In fact it does in a fashion and without giving away too much I will leave you with another quote. Ray, “at least we have each other.” Claire “it really is that bad, isn’t it?”

Read quotes from this movie at   http://www.tvmoviequotes.com/duplicity.htm

Rating – PG -

Fatwayne’s rating  –  -