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Our First Review Of Tony Gilroy's DUPLICITY (Starring Clive Owen And Julia Roberts)!!!
SPOILER ALERT !!
Beaks here...
Tony Gilroy made the leap from A-list writer to A-list writer-director with 2007's MICHAEL CLAYTON. I wasn't a fan, but there's no doubt that the man can write a hell of a monologue (aside from Tom Wilkinson's ravings in MC, he's also responsible for Al Pacino's grandstanding at the end of the ridiculously entertaining DEVIL'S ADVOCATE). You've got to respect that.
It sounds like his latest, DUPLICITY, is mostly for fun, which is refreshing. I'd hate to lose an entertainer like Gilroy (who did such bang-up work on the BOURNE movies) to the prestige pic racket. This one's not due for release until March 2009, so there's plenty of time for tightening up and, if need be, reshoots. Let's see what "welbrick" thought...
haven't seen anything up yet about the screening of 'duplicity' last night, so i thought i'd throw my thoughts @ y'all.
i didn't really get 'michael clayton'. it's proficiently executed w/ a well drawn main character and a worthy story line, but dramatically, it felt inert to me. that cross-cutting @ the end w/ clooney's car driving through the country side w/ a bomb waiting to go off - classic suspense stuff. except there was no suspense in the last act of 'michael clayton' cus we watched the bomb go off 15 minutes into the movie, and we all know clooney is out canoodling w/ a bunch of horses when his car explodes.
that movie felt like a cramp, the plotting was a slow drip that offered no relief. gilroy's new one parses out the info on on an iv, too, but this time he has the good sense to reveal new information with each drop, rather than regurgitating the first act in the climax of the film.
the plot of 'duplicity' is pretty simple, but you'd never think that while watching it. the characters communicate via misdirection. conversations that seem to reveal actually conceal, confessions are denials, arguments are flirtation. this is storytelling by way of acronyms.
it's basically a heist/espionage movie - we could be watching jewel thieves or cia agents scrambling around for the combo to a safe or a missile launch code, but the mcguffin here is a consumer product. the proceedings are allowed a bit more charm when the ingredients of a lotion are being fought over rather than the where abouts of a tortured hostage.
the emotional center of the movie is the clive/julia relationship, which echoes the catty one upmanship of 'the thomas crown affair'. owen & roberts play corporate spies, so there's some trust issues to overcome. they fire lies at one another like bullets, trying to pierce each others' professional facade w/ false outbursts and insulting innuendo. this is the kind of movie where the characters' illusions are more convincing than the ultimate reality the film settles on.
the plot plays similarly to the 'the sting', but smokey betting rooms are now cooperate corridors, and high rise buildings replace racing tracks. 'duplicity' isn't as playful as 'the sting', and there's no obvious villain here; the ceo's of the 2 rival companies function as the targets of clive & julia's con job. and since they're ceo's, i guess we can assume they have it coming.
wilkinson and giamatti play the bossmen of the competing companies that clive & julia are working for (and against). the former pair are in a handful of scenes (they only appear on screen together in a hilariously inspired slow motion credit sequence) and are basically playing single note characters, but i can listen to these guys' riffing on one note all day. giamatti spends his screentime chewing his lower lip as well as any scenery that gets in his way, while wilkinson brings a quiet wisdom to his role, which means he's probably a gullible rube or playing at playing one.
clive owen seems more alive here than in recent outings, more emotive & responsive; he's fun to watch as he is alternately hurt, pretending to be hurt, &/or pretending to be hurt while really hurting others.
julia roberts bugs me. she always seems to press her lines too hard, as if trying to convince everyone that she really believes them. but i think her style of acting works here, the artificiality of her earnestness, the forced grandeur of her smile. it all feels appropriate in this role. it's like casting jack black to play an obnoxious fat guy; roberts' insistence on making her dialog so insistent plays like a calculated decision.
gilroy & dp robert elswitt employ a similar approach; there's a cold precision to the aesthetic, a cooperate seriousness to the compositions. it seems like there's more at stake here than there really is - but this lumet-like approach makes the film genuinely engaging. it's mature entertainment.
as the title suggests, the movie is a mechanism for twists. the characters are all buttoned up in never wrinkle suits, but they get to swagger & boogie as they manipulate one another. it's fun watching them squirm or pretend to squirm as they take turns one upping each other & the audience's expectations.
it's slickly made hollywood bullshit. i dug it.
-welbrick
i didn't really get 'michael clayton'. it's proficiently executed w/ a well drawn main character and a worthy story line, but dramatically, it felt inert to me. that cross-cutting @ the end w/ clooney's car driving through the country side w/ a bomb waiting to go off - classic suspense stuff. except there was no suspense in the last act of 'michael clayton' cus we watched the bomb go off 15 minutes into the movie, and we all know clooney is out canoodling w/ a bunch of horses when his car explodes.
that movie felt like a cramp, the plotting was a slow drip that offered no relief. gilroy's new one parses out the info on on an iv, too, but this time he has the good sense to reveal new information with each drop, rather than regurgitating the first act in the climax of the film.
the plot of 'duplicity' is pretty simple, but you'd never think that while watching it. the characters communicate via misdirection. conversations that seem to reveal actually conceal, confessions are denials, arguments are flirtation. this is storytelling by way of acronyms.
it's basically a heist/espionage movie - we could be watching jewel thieves or cia agents scrambling around for the combo to a safe or a missile launch code, but the mcguffin here is a consumer product. the proceedings are allowed a bit more charm when the ingredients of a lotion are being fought over rather than the where abouts of a tortured hostage.
the emotional center of the movie is the clive/julia relationship, which echoes the catty one upmanship of 'the thomas crown affair'. owen & roberts play corporate spies, so there's some trust issues to overcome. they fire lies at one another like bullets, trying to pierce each others' professional facade w/ false outbursts and insulting innuendo. this is the kind of movie where the characters' illusions are more convincing than the ultimate reality the film settles on.
the plot plays similarly to the 'the sting', but smokey betting rooms are now cooperate corridors, and high rise buildings replace racing tracks. 'duplicity' isn't as playful as 'the sting', and there's no obvious villain here; the ceo's of the 2 rival companies function as the targets of clive & julia's con job. and since they're ceo's, i guess we can assume they have it coming.
wilkinson and giamatti play the bossmen of the competing companies that clive & julia are working for (and against). the former pair are in a handful of scenes (they only appear on screen together in a hilariously inspired slow motion credit sequence) and are basically playing single note characters, but i can listen to these guys' riffing on one note all day. giamatti spends his screentime chewing his lower lip as well as any scenery that gets in his way, while wilkinson brings a quiet wisdom to his role, which means he's probably a gullible rube or playing at playing one.
clive owen seems more alive here than in recent outings, more emotive & responsive; he's fun to watch as he is alternately hurt, pretending to be hurt, &/or pretending to be hurt while really hurting others.
julia roberts bugs me. she always seems to press her lines too hard, as if trying to convince everyone that she really believes them. but i think her style of acting works here, the artificiality of her earnestness, the forced grandeur of her smile. it all feels appropriate in this role. it's like casting jack black to play an obnoxious fat guy; roberts' insistence on making her dialog so insistent plays like a calculated decision.
gilroy & dp robert elswitt employ a similar approach; there's a cold precision to the aesthetic, a cooperate seriousness to the compositions. it seems like there's more at stake here than there really is - but this lumet-like approach makes the film genuinely engaging. it's mature entertainment.
as the title suggests, the movie is a mechanism for twists. the characters are all buttoned up in never wrinkle suits, but they get to swagger & boogie as they manipulate one another. it's fun watching them squirm or pretend to squirm as they take turns one upping each other & the audience's expectations.
it's slickly made hollywood bullshit. i dug it.
-welbrick
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+ Expand All
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Think he'd make a good James Bond?
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hasn't julia roberts had her day? she has even cloned her evilness into that niece of hers. Pfft, now THERE is a talent to watch...groan.
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Can't wait another 5 months!
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Watching Julia Roberts try to act is like having a mean case of the bubble-guts, you know it's really shitty, and that there's just not much that can be done about it.
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Stop trying to get noticed by fucking Variety. The movie actually sounds interesting, but the dickhead reviewer's "w/'s" "@'s" and multiple misspellings of the word corporate makes me want to just punch myself in the face rather than see it.
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Wow Beaks, I had no idea you were anti-Michael Clayton. You just won some points there. I liked the film just fine but I didn't feel it was worthy of all the Oscar attention last year. Just as Welbrick says, it was dramatically inert. Glad to hear Duplicity is fun but it's about time someone call out MC for what it was, a well made but dull thriller.
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This site long ago lost it's ability to actually review a movie. It now seems to only get excited about juvenile shit with superheroes in it. Clayton was a good movie and I think Gilroy is a good director worth keeping an eye on.
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Maybe it's because I'm an English major but this review has completely pissed the fuck right out of me! Who the fuck has never heard of putting CAPITAL LETTERS at the beginning of a new sentence? Did this person not go to school?Learn to fucking write, asshole.
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I think capitalization is going the way of the dinosaur. With texting as the primary form of written communication, capitals are going to be gone soon. Hasn't the UK already done away with the period in abbreviations for mister, doctor, etc.? Oh, and I agree with Beaks about Gilroy. He can write a mean action thriller. If he goes the upper crust route and does nothing more than Michael Clayton flicks from here on out, that would be a shame. Everything in moderation.
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"I like pizza."
*licks pizza, puts pizza into wallet, and folds it up.* -
No sir.
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Since "Erin Brockovich" she's played nothing else. I get it, you're sassy. Fuck off, you self-obsessed bitch.
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This review actually brings me to tears. One of the first things you learn in school is the importance of capital letters. How someone can not grasp such a SIMPLE concept is beyond me and makes me wonder if this reviewer has any sort of employment at all? Perhaps English is their fifth language or something in which case I could *possibly* forgive them.What next though? How about a review of AVATAR without any capital letters or full stops?"yeah avatar was great the best bit was when the ship appeared in front of the moon i never done seen anything as good as that it was good and that was just the first ten minutes later on we get the great sight of..."Sorry for being a grammar Nazi but, as I said before, English major. This kind of awful shit is my Kryptonite!
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What feels natural in (some) people's speech comes across as affected in the written word. Just stop.
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Julia was actually really good in Closer, especially her scenes with Clive who absolutely owned every scene he was in. I'm ready for more well-written roles like that for Clive. His line delivery in that movie is perfection. Hopefully, with Gilroy at the helm, it's sure to have good, intelligent dialogue.
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Oct 28, 2008 9:52:13 AM CDT
I thought Julia Roberts was gonna quit or some shit....
by dannyglovers_dickblood
....GO THE FUCK AWAY. Who the fuck actually wants her back?!!
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Julia Roberts - Retire that no-talent clotheshorse already.
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You're losing me Beaks...
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Oct 28, 2008 11:47:51 AM CDT
But is there a scene in which Owen calls Roberts a "fucked-up sl
by bravogolfhotel
If so, my ticket is bought.
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I really liked "Michael Clayton" and though it deserved those awards. To me, there was plenty of intense, albeit less obvious drama. Plus, Clooney pulled out the best acting performance ever.
Looking forward to "Duplicity." -
In the above, I meant to write, "Clooney pulled out the best acting performance of his career."
Whew... -
Oct 28, 2008 2:11:43 PM CDT
Julia Roberts has hit the wall...too old for Hollywood...
by leafar the lost
Sorry, Julia, but you have hit the wall. You are too old to star in any more future Hollywood movies. You had a good run, but now its time to retire. If you want to "star" in a Lifetime movie that will be filmed in Canada, then you got another 5-7 years left. However, for Hollywood, its over.
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Can you not shove your tiny dick, I mean, review, into everything you cover?
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