Duplicity

How many movies have you seen where the good guys finish last. I mean, in real life they always do. Which is probably why most of us are suckers for the feel good finish in reel life (like me :P). If, you come from that school of thought and are rigid about it (unlike me) then I would suggest you avoid Duplicity. Its not a sad finish. Just different.
Garsick (Paul Giamatti) and Tully (Tom Wilkinson) are rival CEOs in a supremely competitive FMCG world. Given a choice, they would tear not only the other organization but also themselves apart to shreds. Their rivalry is one for the record books in a manner of speaking.
Claire (Julia Roberts) and Ray (Clive Owen) are rival secret agents. They work for the CIA and MI5 respectively. They are both distinctively attracted to each other but share a bitter sweet relationship. Ray is typically left feeling bitter more often that not 
Work fatigue catches up with both Ray and Claire and they get their minds together on how to break away from their respective agencies and go off on their own. After all the best person to work for is oneself right? The target is to make $40 million between the two and then retire in peace. That’s how they get together into the wonderful world of Industrial Espionage. Does something like that exist in the first place in the real world? Are organizations really as competitive as shown, that they go to almost every extent as possible to achieve their goals?
However, Claire and Ray do not quite get off on the right foot. Their intrinsic tendency to doubt, thanks to years with the agency, is obviously not good for any enterprise. As luck would have it, both land up separate assignments and break the first rule of keeping the other person informed. They pan through the next 5 years of constant doubt only to land up with a situation where Claire comes across an opportunity to seed Ray into Garsick’s team of spies. Claire herself is part of Tully’security team but working undercover for Garsick to uncover any interesting developments @ Tully’s end.
Director Tony Gilroy has about 15 movies under is belt as of now as a writer. But his previous and only directorial venture was another brilliant movie called Michael Clayton. In Duplicity he does recreate some of the magic. But is unable to exceed the previous benchmark. The narration is quite intense and keeps you on the look out for the “what next” but is not the most gripping of movies.
Clive Owen is as always ice cool. Julia Roberts, I have for the first time seen, as a secret agent. Not something that I would have associated with Ms. Roberts. But she does quite a good job out of it. Paul Giamatti has always been one of the actors that I have admired. He plays the role of the power hungry sinister CEO to near perfection. Lastly there is Tom Wilkinson. One of the few actors who I believe gives a 110% almost every single time he gets in front of the camera. A Director’s dream come true.
Duplicity is an exciting movie to watch. Keeps you quite engaged. And also explores an otherwise not so experimented with topic of Industrial Espionage and the dangerous nature of the concept. Its not just about transferring information from one organization to the other. I liked the movie. I am quite sure you guys will. This ones a 6 on 10.