Duplicity

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This is a bit of a mess. It centres around the antics of former CIA operative "Claire" (Julia Roberts) and her ex-MI6 equivalent "Ray" (Clive Owen) who had a very brief dalliance five years earlier that saw him with an hangover and some egg on his face. Now, employed in the private sector, he encounters her at Grand Central station in New York whilst he is on a job only to discover that she is still in the same line of work too - and it's industrial secrets being bartered this time. They both know that a ground-breaking announcement is due imminently, so conclude that maybe the best plan is for them to do some of thieving for themselves and pocket a cool $35 million. The thing is that even though their romance is burgeoning, they still don't quite trust each other - and neither do we. Nor, I have to say, did I really care. Roberts tries quite hard here but Owen only ever really had eye-candy value and here is little different. Tom Wilkinson sports an unnecessary American accent as the owner of the magic formula and Paul Giamatti appears sparingly as the man determined to pinch it, but once we get the gist of the premiss the thing just recycles itself and for the next two hours we sort of keep going round the same block. The story is quite weakly written with some fairly formulaic attempts at comedy and a denouement that is hardly a surprise if you're still remotely paying attention. Perhaps it might have worked better with a stronger leading man but...