Utterly shocked at the negative reviews don’t believe it for a second. If you like movies with a lot of twists and an ending you won’t predict this is the movie. Throw in a top notch performances with Julia Roberts and Clive Owens, along side a tremendous supporting cast - you get a can’t miss movie. Somehow I didn’t see this when it first came out, so glad to have stumbled upon this joy of a movie.

Don't expect this as your average espionage in linear sense. Its impressively-crafted structure refines non-linear narrative to the point of stretching it thin in declining momentous strength with maintained intelligence intentionally weaving behind the choices made for differential significance. That's secondarily entertaining behind Clive Owen and Julia Robert's electric chemistry participating through unexpected turns in debatably weighed satisfaction. (B)

Kind of a dumb movie. They were trying to commit espionage but failed. Even if it worked it was still a boring movie with no results.

Muito bom… Confuso, um grande quebra-cabeça cronológico, que para ser desvendado e compreendido precisei de auxílio de wiki e afins, tenso e intenso, no seu trecho final, parece uma grande sopa de letrinha tão eficaz par transmitir mensagens quanto fumaças… Ou não... E os plot twist, reviravolta atrás reviravolta, foge um pouco o lugar comum, apesar de não ser originalmente inédito... Excelente...

Mediocre . Not super easy to follow and even harder to be invested in . You can still kind of wander, wake up and catch a rom com 2.2

Slow and uneventful movie.

well thank god for paul giamanni (sp) every computer generated statement about love and selfishness and money and greed is in this film. my eyes almost got stuck from rolling them so hard this was like fight club and if you guess the beginning - spoilers - the movies is terrible. in the first 5 min i said there is no invention and the rest was like watching golf.

I don't rec this at all. I did like the two leads and their relationship, but that's it. And I'm someone that loves spy movies. There were just too many twists for its own good. Once all the twists were all over, I wondered what the point of the movie was as, from the way it turns out, the leads might as well have just quit their jobs at the beginning instead of doing the plot. Overall, the film needed to take itself less seriously and to rely less on twists and time jumps.

Clive Owen has always been underated but the pairing with Roberts brings out his true potential. Tight script, good suspense, great locations. Looks good on screen.

A comedic, smart and playful spy flick of sorts helmed by an exceptional screenwriter.

"Duplicity" is an ironically sublime title for this flick. It's the kind of intelligent drama with a touch of humor performed by stars that we too often cry out for, ...yet are disappointed when we have to work for it, or give up some popcorn bites to hear every bit of fastidious dialogue.

Dire. I can't recall another leading duo more totally lacking in screen chemistry. I know they are meant to be deceiving each other but some sexual excitement at least would have encouraged me to care what happened to them. Surely this is important to attract an audience? As it is there is nothing there - Julia Robert is totally wooden and charmless and a marginally less oaky Owen seems to simply bounce off her. If this is a deliberate lack of chemistry the result is a massive "so what" from this reviewer. A 100% successful exercise in nihilism! Some pep in the direction would have helped. As it is the director seems to be simply recording events. No flair, no bite, no chemistry, no style, no sense - no thanks.

The plot is too complicate!

So confusing and they tried to hard to be clever. Boring too.

Rubbish and extremely anticlimax... Too many twists, so why care to follow...

Even Owen could not save this joyless, chemistry-less mess.

Ok movie but not something i'd watch often besides it was too much of a critic version of James Bond. Would rather watch RED 1-2 , James Bond movies and similar. Feels like a corporate spy game but could gone better with a bit of Diehard style.

7/6/18 I can't really give this a fair rating. I was very badly struggling to stay awake so it was hard for me to follow. Erika liked it and said it wasn't that difficult to follow. I was a bit lost in the beginning, but it had some interesting plot elements so it did keep me interested. It did seem to go backward and forward in time too many times, which made it more complicated than it had to be. I think it had to be this way to make the plot work in the end. It did come around to completion at the end, but again, it wasn't exactly clear to me what had happened because I was dozing though a lot.

Who would have thought fiercely competitive and greed-fuelled multinational corporations could resort to such ridiculously underhanded political assassination in order to corner the supposedly lucrative market on artificial hair growth products? Phrased like that it sounds a little hokey, and it kind of was. Duplicity is a slightly overcomplicated endlessly deceptive caper-story. When compared silmar tales of the genre (like Mr & Mrs Smith), the devilishly sexy and twisted spy-love theme to 'Outwit, Outspy, Outsmart, Outplay, and get out' is significantly lazy. Modelled noticeably on the cleverly intertwined formula of Ocean's Eleven "what's the character thinking" camera editing and spiffy dialogue layouts, sadly it fails to deliver the same snappy witted, screwball-comedy-esque payoff. The labyrinthine plot begins in Dubai, alluring Ex-CIA Agent Claire Stenwick (Julia Roberts) seduces, drugs and outsmarts James Bond-ish Ex-MI6 Agent Ray Koval (Clive Owen). After Stenwick steals more than just his intelligence, Koval obsessively pursues her in hopes of reaching a truce. The unequivocal mutual-mistrust forces honour between the thieves and become the films motif. When they meet again, and again (predicably already team up and in love) the ambiguous and ethically nimble spies compose an extensive and convoluted scheme to exploit the highly profitable cold war raging between two rivalling multinational cooperation's. Claire and Ray's target is to separately infiltrate the counter-intelligence department of each company, feeding and exploiting the paranoid giants fears of leaks whilst covertly passing insider information. Trail blazing frenzied money mogul Richard Garsik (Paul Giamatti) will stop at nothing to obtain a formula he believes deceptive conglomerate tycoon Howard Tully (Tom Wilkinson) has perfected. Hoping to unveil the purely developmental and highly guarded secret formula at his shareholders meeting, Claire and Ray have other ideas to double-steal the information and sell it on to outside competitors for a tidy sum of $35 million dollars. However, getting their hands on it without raising suspicion proves to be quite a challenge, so does keeping the couples emotional hiatus of business vs. pleasure. Does the pay-off justify the means, or is getting there actually the fun part? Stenwick "If I told you I loved you, would it make any difference?" Koval "If you told me or if I believed you". Director Tony Gilroy's screenplay is perhaps too smart for its own good, the deceptive rollercoaster plot-twister ride is somewhat disorientating. Interweaving flashbacks/forwards whilst being continentally confused jumping from Rome, London, New York and of all places Cleveland is frustrating, even the most discerning moviegoer would find it hard to keep their bearings. The repeated vernacular of the recurring meetings between the two con-artists is not only confusing but intriguing. It is however, pleasantly refreshing to see a film that manages to be this gripping without featuring a single firearm and having an utterly non-existent body count. The star-studded cast gives Duplicity its main zest. Owen has carved a career out of playing icon spy James Bond style charters, without ever being him. The rest of the cast seem just as type-cast as Owen, but who is complaining? Giamatti and Wilkinson have the 'angry boss' act down better than anyone. Exemplified in the wonderful opening credits, a dramatic slow-motion nostril-flaring fierce confrontation between these two rivals on a private airport tarmac plays out like a humorous ballet between two jaw-snapping animals. They are less character, more caricatures spluttering and knocking each other around with their minions and handbags in toe. The only let down, acting wise is Roberts. Maybe it being a mum of three under five or perhaps her overly long Erin Brockovich Oscar speech, but Julia seems to have lost her unmistakeable onscreen presence and all over sparkle and is cold and flat in this movie. The deplorable finale doing a sharp 180 degree turn and almost trying to introduce the characters with a new emotion tone seems weak and meagre, almost as it they were desperate just to ensure the expected and typical Hollywood happy ending. It was truly pathetic The verdict: Although the movie was slow, it was also carefully crafted and had some spunk. Like my review last week of Knowing, this film suffers the same failed last minute attempt at a misguided clean and perky conclusion. When will they learn, if it's about a battle, let them fight to the death. (We don't want soppy endings!) Published: The Queanbeyan Age Date of Publication: 10/04/2009

I was hoping for more romance with this movie, but it was more spy crap and I found it to be very boring.