Review: 'Duplicity' Driven By Clever Charm

'Duplicity' (PG-13)(out of four)

While today's headlines are flashing big-time bonuses from bailout money culled from taxpayer dollars, it's good to see a movie that has at its core a smarmy plan to dupe a big corporation out of a million-dollar idea. Well, make that a $40 million idea.

Clive Owen and Julia Roberts reunite (their last film was "Closer" in 2004) as ex-spies, now dabbling in the worlds of corporate intelligence and counter-intelligence. Roberts plays former CIA officer Claire Stenwick, while Owen is MI6 agent Ray Koval.

Claire is serving a pharmaceutical company, Burkett & Randle, who has its pulse on a secret formula that would position it as a mega giant and put more than chump change in its CEO's (Tom Wilkinson) pocket. Arch nemesis company Equikrom, led by Type A executive Richard Garsik (Paul Giamatti), wants to beat his rival to the punch. His master plan is to steal the formula to make his own mark on the world. Actually, midway through the film it's apparent that everyone in this movie wants to get their hands on this formula.

The smart script by Tony Gilroy, who also is behind the camera (he also directed his own script for "Michael Clayton") brings lots of double talking, industrial wrangling, and good old-fashioned sex appeal to the screen. Sparks fly when they collide at a pool party in Dubai, and the double crossing flies into full gear. After they've slept together, he wakes up the next morning in a drugged-out haze, while she's made off with a vital dossier he was coveting. Somehow between there and here, they've managed to come together to mastermind a corporate scam.

The witty banter between the two is like watching a match between two tennis rivals. She hits a zinger, he flings it back. In one of the most delicious scenes in the movie, she shows up at his Cleveland apartment. She hasn't called to say she'll be dropping by because it might just blow her cover. So she shows up unannounced, putting him on the spot, twirling lacy thong underwear she said she found in an on-site closet. He protests frantically, saying that the only woman that has stepped foot in the flat was his landlady. "And she couldn't wear that as a wristband," he retorts.

The two play each other like violins in this scene, and many others. Gilroy, with his snappy dialogue, makes the most of the charm of his two actors. Roberts, who has matured since her flirtatious days in "Pretty Woman," now exudes sexiness through aloofness. It works when she goes up against Owen's sarcastic charm. They banter, they bark, they work together toward a common goal.

Claire: "You on one side, me on the other. It's perfect."

Ray: "You know what I think?"

Claire: "I think you like the idea."

Slamdunk.

"Duplicity" takes its double-crossing, doubledealing deception to the hilt, yet the spies never produce a gun -- and the only violence is a little scuffle on an airplane tarmac between two corporate execs. There's more violence happening now on Capitol Hill over the banking debacle.

Smart, sexy, witty and sometimes forced into double entendres because of its PG-13 rating, the weakness in "Duplicity" lies in the revelation of the formula. When we learn what it is these folks want to steal, it is a bit ridiculous that any of these big fish would be going out on such a limb for the goods. Yet its bankable stars, taut script, and twists and turns, guarantee there's a worthwhile payoff at the end of this pot of gold.