Duplicity [Blu-ray]

Movie / Show Details

Amazon.com

Julia Roberts and Clive Owen surprise and delight on multiple levels in Duplicity, a caper film that keeps the audience guessing if the tone is cheeky, seriously, or both in exactly the same scene. Owen smolders as the relaxed, craggy sexual beast he’s become–effortlessly–and Roberts is surprisingly mature and tic-less. And their chemistry threatens to explode out of the beaker. On one level, Duplicity is a sparring romance, bringing to mind the no-holds-barred zingers between Cary Grant and Roz Russell in His Girl Friday. But the film has layers of action and suspense, as well as a neat spin on the spy business. Instead of hunting for, or protecting, confidential state nuclear secrets, as each character once did when they first met, now they are beholden to captains of industry and Madison Avenue–seeking secrets not of national security, but of formulas to the next great… moisturizer. Director Tony Gilroy, who wrote all the Bourne films and wrote and directed Michael Clayton is clearly carving out a snappy path for himself as a master of sleek, suspenseful, energetic films that nonetheless appeal to a mass audience. A special shoutout to the opening scene of a mano a mano fistfight on a tarmac between Armani-clad CEOs (one played by an especially memorable Paul Giamatti). “You on one side, me on the other,” says Roberts’ Claire at one point to Owen’s Ray. “It’s perfect.” Perfect grownup entertainment. –A.T. Hurley

Stills from Duplicity (Click for larger image)

Product Description

Oscar® winner Julia Roberts and Clive Owen star as two sexy spies-turned-corporate operatives in the midst of a clandestine love affair. When they find themselves on either side of an all-out corporate war, they’ll put everything on the line to remain one double-cross ahead in a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse. From writer/director Tony Gilroy (seven-time Oscar®-nominated Michael Clayton) comes the film critics are raving about: “Roberts and Owen have sizzling chemistry in this instant classic.” (Lou Lumenick, New York Post)