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• An entertaining caper-romance with lots of twists

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Film capers are like puzzles; the fun ones are those you think you can solve, but they always perplex you, before you finally resolve the chains of the labyrinth. Writer/director Tony Gilroy’s Duplicity is an attractive caper/romance that provides plenty of entertaining moments with two attractive leads in a rather long, purposely convoluted story that will have you guessing until the end.

Julia Roberts and Clive Owen star as Claire Stenwick and Roy Koval, two corporate spies who have a one night stand in Dubai one evening six years ago. Eventually they team up in a contrived plot that Gilroy weaves back and forth through numerous flashbacks and plot twists as Claire and Roy balance trust, lust and deception, hoping to make millions on a corporate secret which they will steal and sell to another country to purposely foil the ambitions of their former employers.

Roberts and Owen make an attractively charming and sexy spy couple juggling mildly humorous and quaintly suggestive lines, hopping in and out of beds in numerous beautiful international cities while manipulating multiple passports, deceiving corporate managers and finding a way to steal a secret formula for an amazing product that will make millions. Finally it seems that Gilroy may be one director who has found a right way to tap the talent of Owen, who is frequently misused in partially realized projects. The Roberts and Owen chemistry, while not always believable, is undeniably pleasant. Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson provide moments of mild humor and scheming manipulations as corporate rivals.

While Gilroy’s script is probably overly manipulative and confusing with time shifts that double back the narrative almost to the characters’ initial rendezvous, the film’s tone is consistently and effectively light and amusing. With frequent use of split screen images, flashy transitional editing and a lively James Newton Howard film score, Gilroy manages a rather brisk pace to this over two hour film caper that most will find entertaining, and some pleasantly rewarding.