Tony Gilroy the screenwriter defeats Tony Gilroy the director in this new release from the writer/director of Michael Clayton.  Julia Roberts and Clive Owen (Children of Men) star as former government agents who get involved with industrial espionage and each other while they try to con dueling titans of industry played by Paul Giamatti (Sideways, American Splendor) and Tom Wilkinson (Batman Begins, The Full Monty).

Owen and Roberts are bona fide movie stars who generate real chemistry that the movie depends on.  But it is not enough as Gilroy crams in so many layers and instances of, well, duplicity that the viewer's ability to keep track of what shady dealings are being done to whom and why is quickly overwhelmed.  As the movie is a romance, the stars must eventually declare their love for each other, but it is unclear where that comes from as every interaction between them involves, indeed revolves around, dishonesty with each other.  On their first meeting with each other he approaches her with witty dialogue only to have her drug him and steal his papers.  On their second meeting she pretends not to know him until he halfway starts to believe her -but wait!- that is actually their third meeting reflecting what happened on their second, for the benefit of people listening on his cell phone, etc…  As one of the characters notes, the main reason they are attracted to each other is probably because each might be the only person who will understand the other's affinity for scheming.

The movie looks like it was fun to shoot, with a lot of name stars basking in each others' wattage in beautiful locations (similar to Ocean's Eleven, Twelve, etc.- this seems to be the mode Julia Roberts prefers to handle her career in right now) but the crackling dialogue probably made a lot more sense with the screenplay in hand with a post-it every few pages to keep track of backtracks, reversals, and reveals.  Your enjoyment of this movie depends on your indulgence of an undeniably clever script that is way more interested in twists than coherence, or your willingness to simply put all that aside and stare at whichever of the gorgeous leads strikes your fancy for two plus hours.

The Extras are sparse, consisting entirely of a director's commentary where he explains a few plot points and discusses the difficulty of trying to get establishing shots of Julia Roberts walking through midtown Manhattan before someone notices her and the whole thing turns into a mess, and an editing feature allowing you to use your remote to select segments of the film to view as discrete clips, possibly as an aid to untangling the plot.  There is also a BD-Live feature common to most Blu-ray releases that allows you to use your internet connection to download additional content, which at this writing is limited to trailers for other movies.

1080p widescreen HD video and Dolby 5.1 sound bring the Bahamas, Grand Central Station and corporate boardrooms to the screen with perfect fidelity.  English, Spanish, and French subtitles available.

ComicsOnline gives Duplicity 2 out of 5 cryptic chalk markings on the edge of a park bench.

125 min.  PG-13