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Duplicity Our rating: Your rating: 1 2 3 4 Your Comments: see all MPAA rating: PG-13 (for language and some sexual content) Genre: Comedy, Crime, Thriller Theater release: March 20, 2009 by Universal Pictures Directed by: Tony Gilroy Runtime: 2 hours 5 minutes Cast: Julia Roberts (Claire Stenwick), Clive Owen (Ray Koval), Tom Wilkinson (Howard Tully), Paul Giamatti (Dick Garsil) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

Film critics often use the word "fun" when referring to a movie that isn't going to turn many heads and may not be all that worthy of significant attention, yet still retains some semblance of quantitative entertainment value. Critically acclaimed films don't often involve fun—moving, sophisticated and elegant, yes, but rarely fun. So when a film appears that is whiplash smart and breathlessly entertaining, you want—to paraphrase the great Walt Whitman—to shout your review over the rooftops of the world.

Like the miniature Rubik's Cubes that two spies use to identify themselves to each other in Manhattan's crowded Grand Central Terminal, writer/director Tony Gilroy's Duplicity is a pleasurable puzzle with a vast myriad of possible outcomes. At any given time, we have no idea what's going on, but rather than becoming frustrated, we hunker down and pay that much more attention, intent on reconstructing the jigsaw puzzle before all the playful twists are revealed. However, as the title suggests, deceit is the name of this intoxicating game, and we soon realize that success is nearly impossible when the pieces never sit still.

Clive Owen as Ray Koval

Duplicity's opening credits sequence sets the tone for the entire film. A wide shot shows two corporate jets facing each other on opposite ends of the screen. (This mirroring, a visual pun on the word "duplicity," will be repeated throughout the film.) Clustered around both aircraft, umbrellas opened against the rain, are well-dressed business types. Two men break free from their respective groups and surge toward one another across the length of tarmac, headed for screen center. They are Howard Tully (Tom Wilkinson), the CEO of Burkett-Randle, and his counterpart at Equikrom, Richard "Dick" Garsil (Paul Giamatti). Screaming and wagging imperious fingers, the two clash at the proverbial 50-yard-line where verbal sparing turns to shoving which ends finally as a wrestling match on the sodden blacktop. The sequence, set to a jaunty piece of music, takes place in slow motion and without dialogue.

Right away, we know we will be watching something different. Different than the usual mindless pre-Spring fare. Different than the usual comedy crime thriller. This is Michael Clayton (also directed by Gilroy) meets Oceans 11, a film which taps into the depth and intelligence of the former while wrapping itself in the humor and energy of the latter. This is screwball comedy for the contemporary age—zippy, muscular language delivered fast and furious in support of a story as titillating as it is sobering.

With the Cold War thawed, ex-covert agents now make their living spying for multinational corporations. Claire (Julia Roberts) used to work for the CIA, and Ray (Clive Owen) once snuck around for queen and country in MI6. The two first met in Dubai in 2003 when Claire got the better of Ray on a case and then vanished into thin air. He's had a thing for her ever since.

Flash forward to 2009. Claire and Ray are now on the same side, working as industrial spies for Equikrom. The health-and-beauty aids giant is convinced that its direct competitor, Burkett-Randle, is on the verge of announcing a breakthrough new product, and Claire and Ray are under orders to obtain the secret formula and its potentially limitless profit. The paranoid Garsil is convinced his nemesis Tully is intent on destroying him because "that's what I would do."

Julia Roberts as Claire Stenwick

With Claire working as a double agent inside Burkett-Randle, Ray and a team of crack investigators use the latest technology and good old-fashioned gumshoe work to unravel B-R's secrets. It won't be easy. B-R's security measures rival the Pentagon's and they know Equikrom is coming for them. But are they aware Ray and Claire have plans of their own? Who is playing whom?

All of this intrigue and ratcheting tension (Gilroy successfully manages to endow toiletries with the same gravity as state secrets) is mere subtext for his true game—the relationship between Ray and Claire. Everything else is just the set-up. Here is where Gilroy focuses our attention and applies everything we've learned about the world in which Ray and Claire operate.

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