Duplicity

They can't trust each other - and that's what they like about one another.

Tony Gilroy is quietly, efficiently becoming of the best writers in Hollywood.    First, he brought us the Bourne trilogy, which out-Bonded Bond, set the standard for serious action flicks for years to come, and redefined masculinity in the movies.   Then came “Michael Clayton,”  one of my favorite movies of recent years, which cranked up the suspense while demanding a level of intellectual engagement from its audience that action thrillers haven’t asked for in years.   And now, “Duplicity.”  The guy’s on a roll.

Essentially, “Duplicity” is “Michael Clayton” played for laughs.   Gilroy returns us to the world of the corporate spy thriller, but by taking death and destruction out of the equation, he shows us just show silly all this cloak-and-dagger nonsense really is.   The movie is about two fiercely competitive shampoo manufacturers (played with a remarkable level of commitment by Tom Wilkinson and Paul Giamatti, who have never looked so ridiculous) who are desperate to protect their own shampoo formulas from the other guy -and just as desperate to steal the other guy’s formula from him.   The opening credit sequence is one of the best in recent memory: Wilkinson and Giamatti duke it out in slow motion, a fierce, grotesque spectacle.   It sets the tone for “Duplicity” — grown men is business suits shouldn’t be fighting like this, but they are.  Oh, are they ever.

Enter the “real” spies.    Clive Own is retired MI-6, Julia Roberts former CIA.   They fall in love, or something like it, and decide to take their skills to the private sector, where the money is better and the employers are stupider — or at least less capable of tracking them down and killing them when they get double-crossed.   After years of playing Spy vs. Spy, they’re looking for that One Last Job that will set them up in posh Italian hotel rooms for the rest of their lives.   Clive Owen is crisp and sophisticated, reminding us why he really should have been the next James Bond.  Meanwhile, Julia Roberts is sour and smart, making us wonder why anyone would ever want to sleep with her.   She has not gotten better with age.   “Duplicity” succeeds in spite of her.

Because they both know how to play people, and know that the other knows how to play people, their relationship is based on a lack of trust in each other, and we’re supposed to believe that this lack of trust is why they are attracted to each other.   I’ll believe it with Owen; most of the time he looks like he’s having fun, trying to figure out if she’s playing him in some way.   But Roberts looks like she’s getting ulcers.   “Do you have any idea how frustrating it is to know that you’re the only man who could possibly understand me?”  she sobs over coffee to him, and one wonders if he shouldn’t just cut and run right there.

But wait — back to the spy plot.   Wilkinson vs. Giamatti.   Roberts is a spy inside the counterintelligence unit of Wilkinson’s shampoo company, and Owens is her handler.   Giamatti hovers over  the spy team, constantly reminding them, with great intensity, just how important this whole thing is.   (Methinks he doth protest too much.)  Wilkinson clearly has something big in the works, and Owen and Roberts work feverishly to learn what it is, dupe their boss, and steal it for themselves so they can sell it to Swiss buyers– before Wilkinson’s big launch day.

I am very impressed with how “Duplicity” works as a corporate spy thriller while simultaneously mocking corporate spy thrillers.   It is smart and sharp, full of quick turns and breathless one-upmanship, always two steps ahead of its audience and daring us to catch up.   And yet Gilroy never allows us to forget that what’s at stake here is shampoo, not Air Force defense codes.   The romance between Owen and Roberts plays with the wit and edge and effortless style of much older, more sophisticated romantic comedies;  I was reminded more than once of Ernst Lubitsch’s “Trouble in Paradise,”  the best movie of a different era.

Recommended

• if you liked “Michael Clayton” and/or the Bourne trilogy.   Gilroy strikes gold again.
• if you’re a fan of “Trouble in Paradise,”  ”To Catch A Thief” or any of those old, wonderful, sophisticated romantic comedy/crime thrillers.
• if you’re a big fan of Julia Roberts and think she can do no wrong.

Not Recommended

• if you’ve never liked Julia Roberts much.
• if you hate it when movies are always two steps ahead of you, and you can’t figure out who’s doing what to who, or where, or why.
• If you’re in shampoo.