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Julia Roberts is one of my favourite female actors. She has all the elements of a star ... she is talented, professional, can do any role just perfectly and as a bonus she has a pretty face.
So when Duplicity was screened in the cinema, I told myself that I have to see this one and once again I was not disappointed by her.
My other reason for wanting to see it was the male star, Clive Owen, he is a charming man with a beautiful voice.
Duplicity is a thriller with a romantic touch. Both Roberts and Owen are witty, intelligent and funny in this film.
Owen playing an MI-6 spy Ray and CIA spook Claire first meet in a party at the US consulate in Dubai. After their encounter they meet again years later in another city and back and forth it goes.
From government employees they move to being corporate agents who just can't trust each other.
In the beginning of the movie there is a confrontation between two titans of commerce ... Howard Tully (Tom Wilkinson) tackling his rival Richard Garsik (Giamatti). Each wants to secure a particular product and hires one of the former spies to get it for them.
It is Tully and Garsik's rage and paranoia that drives Duplicity.
All the flirting, the going back and forth through the years of Claire and Ray's relationship is underlined by the instinctual mistrust between their two employers.
Claire is working for Tully, who is the CEO of a major corporation on the verge of unveiling a revolutionary new product which corporate pirate Garsik is dying to get his hands on and of course Ray is working for Garsik.
What neither company knows is that Ray and Claire actually know each other from several years earlier and are collaborating to steal the formula and sell it to a third party for a large amount of money.
Director Tony Gilroy mixes comedy with suspense as we see the extreme measures the corporations take to steal one another's secrets and protect their own from theft, and that's what makes the movie exciting.
The exchanges between Ray and Claire are excellent and fun to watch. They share a great chemistry together.
I recommend those who have not seen the movie yet to go and watch it.
Showing in: Seef II, Saar Cineplex.
