Julia Roberts has been in many movies during her career and I have enjoyed most of them that I've seen.  I also have enjoyed Clive Owen, so I was interested in seeing their new movie Duplicity.

Equikrom and Burkett Randle are rival companies that both make health and beauty products.  Richard Garsik and Howard Tully, the men in charge of the companies, can't stand each other and are always trying to out do each other.  Former MI-6 agent Ray Koval has a fairly new job working for Equikrom as part of a team that is trying to find out about any new potential products that Burkett Randle is developing.  The ultimate goal is to learn about a huge new product in enough time that the team would be able to get so that Equikrom could launch the product first.

Ray is not happy when he discovers that the mole working at Burkett Randle for Equikrom is Claire Stenwick, a former CIA agent that he has a history with.  Claire isn't happy about the situation either, but they find a way to work together.  Claire has learned that Burkett Randle is on the verge of announcing a new product, so the team at Equikrom starts plotting to find a way to discover what the new product is.

Duplicity is not told in a traditional straightforward manner.  It starts off showing something that happened five years before the main part of plot took place.  Then it jumps forward five years to start the main plot.  Every so often during the rest of the movie, it would jump back to show a short sequence before returning to the main story.  The things shown during the flashbacks are important to the overall plot.  For every flashback, it was stated where they were set and how long ago they happened.  I didn't have any trouble following what was going on, though other people will probably feel differently.  Even though I didn't get lost in what was going on, that doesn't mean that I enjoyed all the flashbacks.  They did get a bit annoying, though I'm not sure certain things would have worked right without them.  One or two things would have been known for sure a lot sooner even though those things weren't exactly huge revelations by the point they were shared.  

It seems like there has been an attempt to make the plot of Duplicity more complicated than it really is.  Two former spies now work for private companies, though they are basically doing many things that they did with their previous careers.  Launching new products before the competition is a big deal for many huge companies, and it makes sense that rival companies would try to beat each other to the next great product.  I've heard of espionage going on in the corporate world, though I have no idea if companies go the lengths that the companies in the movie did.  One company is planning a new product and the other company is desperate to get it for themselves.  That really is the main plot.  Things connected to Ray and Claire's pasts and their relationship seem to be tossed in the way they were as an attempt to make things more complex than they actually were.  

There is a very small amount of mystery in Duplicity, mostly connected to exactly what the big product that Burkett Randall is getting ready to launch.  For almost all of the movie, no one involved knows exactly what the product is and I did briefly wonder what it would be.  I honestly hadn't thought of what the product could be.  Once it is revealed, it is something that I could see rival companies competing to be the first to patent and release.  There is one or two scenes that have a small amount of suspense.  That is really it for any mystery and suspense.  I will say that something did happen late in the movie that I didn't suspect, though considering everything going on, it makes perfect sense.  It also seems very odd that at least one of the characters didn't suspect something along those lines as well.  the movie has been promoted as a comedy, which I don't think fits very well.  There were only a couple of things that made me laugh in the movie.

When Duplicity begins, it is shown how Claire and Ray first meet.  That sets off what ends up being a somewhat complicated relationship between them in which neither of them seem to fully trust the other.  It was made clear in the previews that their relationship has trust issues, so I wasn't surprised by that aspect of the movie.  Things with their relationship are shared in a way that I hadn't expected.  There aren't any actual sex scenes in the movie, but it is clear that they have a sexual relationship.  That's about the only thing that is completely clear about their relationship.  Both of them shown a lot of skin at times without being fully naked.  There are sexual situations in several scenes, which helped to get the movie rated PG-13.  There isn't anything really offensive in the movie, but it really isn't one for children either.

There isn't much in the way of character development in Duplicity, which did manage to work with what was going on for the most part.  Ray is a former MI-6 agent who left the agency to work in private sector.  Claire is a former CIA agent who left her job with the agency for the same reason.  They both have trust issues connected to their former work.  Julia Roberts and Clive Owen were fine in the parts, though nothing really special.

Howard Tully is the man in charge of Burkett Randall.  He is only in a few scenes, so basically nothing is shared about him.  Tom Wilkinson really didn't have much to do with the part.  Richard Garsik is the man in charge of Equikrom.  He is around a little more, though still a mostly flat character overall.  He is determined to find out what new product Burkett Randall is getting ready to launch.  Richard is impulsive and acts like a jerk.  Paul Giamatti was wasted in the part, which is a shame.  The people that Claire and Ray worked with turned up in some scenes without standing out much.

Main Cast

Paul Giamatti - Richard Garsik
Clive Owen - Ray Koval
Julia Roberts - Claire Stenwick
Tom Wilkinson - Howard Tully

Tony Gilroy - Director

Duplicity had potential with an interesting plot and good cast, but it failed to reach that potential.  The way the movie jumped around in time frequently will turn off a lot of viewers.  This isn't a movie that will appeal to everyone, though fans of the cast might find something to like about the movie.  For me, it is barely a three star movie.  I only recommend it to fans of the cast.

Julia Roberts Movie Reviews
America's Sweethearts ~ The Ant Bully ~ Charlie Wilson's War ~ Flatliners ~ I Love Trouble ~ The Mexican ~ Ocean's 11 ~ Ocean's Twelve ~

Recommended: Yes