Eye Candy #224 - "Duplicity"

Duplicity:  Kind of a mix between “Michael Clayton” and “Ocean’s 11”, “Duplicity” is the 2nd film directed by screenwriter Tom Gilroy.  Julia Roberts and Clive Owen star as ex-spooks positioned between two cutthroat pharmaceutical giants (played by Tom Wilkinson and Paul Giamatti), playing one against the other for a big payoff.  A little confusing to start as its structure is a bit unorthodox.  It’s a bit more intelligent than probably the average audience could handle (you can’t just check your brain at the door and wait for the explosions), but it clips right along at a great pace (it has the urgency and pacing that “Michael Clayton” lacked) and the last hour FLIES by as the double- and triple-crosses come to fruition.  Owen and Roberts are good together.   Giamatti is over-the-top cartoonish as the ultra-paranoid executive Richard Garsik.  Wilkinson isn’t given a whole lot to do which is unfortunate as he is easily the best actor in the cast.  Not a great film, but certainly well put together and worth watching. Woodchuck sez, “Check it out.”