DUPLICITY
US, 2009, 125 minutes, Colour.
Clive Owen, Julia Roberts, Tom Wilkinson, Paul Giamatti, Denis O’ Hare, Kathleen Chalfant, Thomas Mc Carthy.
Directed by Tony Gilroy.
Despite the poor grammar, one of the advertising taglines for Duplicity is 'Who's playing who?'. That needs to be kept in mind right up to the final credits. This is one of those films which requires constant attention. If you let your mind wander, you miss a step in the game-playing between the central characters and their companies. With the screenplay out to be duplicitous for the audience, it plays the audience and shows them a variety of scenes that need to be reinterpreted in the light of subsequent events – or, because there are a number of flashbacks, some of them deceptive as well, in the light of previous events.
Pre opening credits, an MI6 agent and a covert spy have a brief encounter and a night's liaison in Dubai in 2003. They meet again in New York in 2008 and clash because she says she can't remember him. They are both now involved in industrial espionage for two rival global cosmetic companies. We realise this more strongly as we watch the credits and a tarmac slow motion battle between the two presidents of the corporations. They then go head to head behind the scenes for the rest of the film as the two industrial spies work covertly and try to steal a formula for a miracle cure.
Maybe you have seen this story before but that does not really matter. What matters is that the two spies are Julia Roberts and Clive Owen (who had appeared some years before in Mike Nichols' Closer). They obviously relish playing off each other both in love and war, keeping each other wondering whether they can trust each other – and we sharing this wondering and asking ourselves who is in control and what will be the outcome. It also matters that the two industrialists are played by Tom Wilkinson (who had received an Oscar nomination for his role in director Tony Gilroy's previous film, Michael Clayton) and that very versatile actor, Paul Giamatti, who has an opportunity to chew the scenery in a kind of Oscar-bid performance.
The settings for the encounters between the two spies are touristic and colourful, including Rome, London, the Bahamas, Zurich and by way of glamour contrast, Cleveland.
Tony Gilroy has written a number of screenplays, including the Bourne trilogy. He knows how to construct deceptive puzzles and some smart dialogue.
While the intrigue, the romance, the uncertainty and the conspiracy theories are always attention-grabbing, ultimately one brings a moral perspective to these highly immoral and amoral characters and their behaviour: so much energy, ingenuity and planning for greed and power. What if all that effort and all that wealth were put to good use for the benefit of people in need? The world could be so much better without the intrigue and lust for money.
1.The form of romantic comedy, thriller – but variation on the theme?
2.The title, Claire and Ray and their relationship, their work? The companies, the staff, industrial espionage?
3.The high-tech aspects of the plot? The low ethical aspects?
4.The introduction to Ray and Claire, in Dubai, the glamour, Fourth of July, his talk, approach, the pickup theme, the banter, the night together, her stealing the documents, his reactions? The passing of five years?
5.The structure, the tricks? The flashbacks, their gradual revelation, aspects of the puzzle, plan and execution?
6.The credits, the fight between Garsick and Tully on the tarmac? Slow motion? Effect? Introduction to the battle between them?
7.The present: the business work, the rivalries of the companies, their products, research, the surveillance teams, the vast amounts of money for spying? The nature of industrial espionage? The set-ups, spies working both sides? Set-ups and counter set-ups? The visuals of Garsick’s surveillance room?
8.Ray, his style, appearance, the job, on the team, following Claire in New York, the contact? Claire, the bar, their talk, hostility (and the later tape)? Not knowing each other, Claire as Tully’s spy for Garsick? The two companies and the meetings? Garsick, his thuggery, the surveillance team: Duke, Pam, the computer nerd? Tully and his business style, calling the meeting, Jeff and Claire and their discussions? The staff?
9.The international flavour of the story: Rome, London, New York, Zurich, Cleveland? A world of glamour, modern, buildings, offices, technology? The score?
10.Audience reaction to the Rome meeting, Ray, seeing Claire, following her? Who was leading whom? The discussions about Dubai, their affair? Memories, chat, the development of their plans? The motivation, being able to be duplicitous, greed?
11.The London scene, the meeting, time, the development of the plot? Ray and his plan for the pizza formula? Claire and her going to work for Tully?
12.Ray in Cleveland, drab, Claire’s arrival, the mutual suspicions, Ray and his work, moving out of the pizza plan, Claire and her being employed by Tully? The set-up?
13.The present, the different perspective, their rehearsing their lines for the taped interview, the issue of the formula, people’s speculation about it, the revelation that it was for hair growth? Each company and its secrets? The set-up for the stealing of the formula, Ray in Garsick’s room? The tension, Claire in Tully’s office, Jeff and his intervention, tying him up, the security guards, her rushing from room to room, the technology assistant trying to make the connections, find which room she should go to, no names on the door? Jeff and his reactions, trying to get free?
14.The meeting between Ray and Claire, cat-and-mouse, Zurich, who had the formula, the two testing each other, the waiting for the Zurich scientists to look at the formula? The failure?
15.Tully, his team, Tully as bombastic? His having Jeff as a plant? The irony of Pam and her working for Tully?
16.Garsick, his methods, the double going in the car, his love of plotting?
17.The young inventor, his background story, young, his life, studies, work, invention, a gambler, his disguise? Ray and Claire’s reaction to him? His participating in the set-up?
18.The convention, Garsick and the welcome, his vanity, the TV monitor, his speech? The interruption and the revelation of the truth? His being tricked?
19.Tully, Jeff and Pam? The set-up, knowing what was happening with Ray and Claire, the tape? Their room being bugged?
20.The fiasco for Garsick? The victory for Tully?
21.The irony of Ray and Claire with all their skills, their gamble for the years, not succeeding?
