Duplicity (2009) is a comedic/romantic espionage film. It stars Julia Roberts and Clive Owen, and features Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson in supporting roles. I had to watch this film twice in order to really understand it all because a lot goes on and at times it is a little hard to keep up. This is definitely not a film you can half pay attention to, if you do then you'll be like wait a minute, what the hell is going on?? Just go into this one knowing and expecting that. With that being said, there are so many things that Duplicity gets right. The casting is spot on for every character, I loved how they all portrayed their individual characters. The chemistry between Roberts and Owen is great, they have a relationship sometimes without complete trust, which is understandable given what they do for a living. This leads to numerous humorous exchanges between the two, and these exchanges are very well written, just like the entire film is. The writing is smart and it keeps you engaged. The ending is what I absolutely adore in this movie, I didn't see it coming at all and it is rather surprising. I highly recommend this entertaining, well put together film. 9/10.

I watched the DVD twice, and then a third time with the director's commentary, and still can't join all the pieces together.

The basic story is clear enough, there are these two huge pharmaceutical companies in cut-throat competition to provide the consumer with such essentials as ... a new shampoo, a special car-wash, premium diapers, (you name it, they'll make it, and sell it), each has industrial spy employees with labels like "techintel" and "counterintel" and they get up to all sorts of devious activities to try and learn what the other is doing.

Agents Ray (Clive Owen) and Claire (Julia Roberts) are at first on opposite sides, but later, they join together (socially as well as commercially!) to go for the corporate area.

Duplicity is all over the place, they strive to get the secrets, but... how do they know they are not being duped themselves? They don't, and the viewers don't know either. Even the final revelations might be yet another piece of duplicity? The acting is great, but the confusion starts early with scenes that we are supposed to remember, and to know when they become relevant. ie, three years later... then 18 months ago, 14 months ago. Besides the two chief agents, there are back room analysts whose names and roles are a bit unclear. One particular scene involves CEO Garsik apparently talking to a double of himself, but only very briefly. Strange that this is not followed up?

The support cast are really good, Carrie Preston, Tom Wilkinson, Kathleen Chalfant especially, and there are a few especially good scenes with good dialogue, but overall, it gets my rating of ..."could have been much better".

"Duplicity" isn't billed as a comedy, but as a straight crime-thriller and romance. But, it is also a sort of comedy of errors. Not in the sense of Shakespeare's farce, but in the oneupmanship and goofs of the two leads. Julia Roberts plays Claire Stenwick and Clive Owen plays Ray Koval. They are espionage agents for the U.S. and Great Britain who resign their careers in the CIA and M16 to go private and make a big swindle that will give them a $40 million retirement for the rest of their lives. The only trouble is that they've been at their trade so long that they no longer trust anyone. The humor comes in their constant doubt about one another. It's a sort of ironic justice.

The film does have intrigue, and that's what keeps a viewer's interest. Otherwise, it's a very weak script. It jumps all over the place so much that it's very difficult to follow. The technique of going back 5 years, and two years, and 14 months, and 10 months, and two months, etc. is used to unveil bits of the story and keep the intrigue as it goes along. But, that's also part of its weakness. It's just very choppy and confusing. The filmmakers needed to find a better way to do that, so that the audience could stay with the story.

The film has a very good supporting cast, and the acting is fine. But, the shaky plot and bouncing around just takes away from the enjoyment. It lacks in directing also – there are scenes when Clive Owen seems to have long pauses in his lines – as though he doesn't know what to say next. From early on, I began to doubt aspects of the film. Maybe that's because of the weak plot and one flaw that the movie makers didn't catch. For as good as Claire and Ray were supposed to be in their line of work, they actually seemed dumb in places – especially Ray. They didn't read signs correctly. But their biggest flaw – in the character development in the script, was that they weren't as security conscious as one would expect. While each had some recorded tape of the other, it never dawned on them that other intelligence sources might also be monitoring them together. That makes them seem as not the sharpest of espionage agents, so I suspected their cleverness and ability very early.

There are lots of bedroom scenes that require no plot or clever scripting, so DVD viewers can go to the kitchen for refreshments. I like most of the cast of this film in their many other films, but this isn't a movie that any of them can be proud of in their portfolios. Anyone who hasn't seen this film would be wise to try another one or save the price of a rental or purchase.

Here's a sample dialog of the humor in the tragic mistrust between Claire and Ray. Claire, "Then I'm thinking how terrible it is that I think that way. Then I realize we both think that way. Then I'm thinking, is that what makes this so worth it? Is that it? That I know you're thinking exactly what I'm thinking? Because then I'm thinking, do we both think like that because of what we do? Are we good at what we do because we think like that?"

Ray, "Everybody thinks like that. They just don't say it." Claire, "Civilians don't think like that." Ray, "Bull---t. Nobody trusts anybody. We just cop to it." Claire, "OK, so cop to it." Ray, "Me? I think you better go first." Claire, "Why? What am I hiding?" Ray, "This wasn't an accident was it? Our meeting like this?"