Decentplicity
Duplicity could be the Ghost World of 2008. A film that is simply fine but nothing great but gets more love than it should because of the people involved. Tony Gilroy is a gifted writer but I think his press clippings are a little much. "Michael Clayton" was good not great, an art house version of "The Firm". "Duplicity" plays like a lighter version of a lesser Mamet work; clever, twisty, forgettable.
If there's one thing that Tony Gilroy should be forced to stop doing though is playing with the chronology of his films. The flash forward at the beginning of "Clayton" sapped all of the tension out of the later chase scene. In "Duplicity", the jumps forward/back in time really don't add anything and again, it kind of saps the power out of one of the kicker scenes.
This movie is good enough to get a slight recommendation but there's no reason to see it in the theaters. It's almost the definition of a rental.
Comments
I hear your rental advice. It's getting pretty solid reviews and frankly I didn't see it either. I loved the opening fight/credit sequence and that's the most memorable part of the film. The cuts back and forth I would forgive if it got us anywhere, but it didn't (after the first one) and the rest of the film was passable filler for a climactic scene involving Julia Roberts looking for a copier (which took forever). I liked the scene cuts, the shifting panes are refreshing, but reminded me of Ocean's 11 (alot of it did actually). I disagree with the Clayton comment, it was a slick film with well rounded characters, this didn't have that.
Posted by: JK | March 22, 2009 03:45 PM