Movie Review: Duplicity Blu-ray

Corporate espionage is taken to the next level when two spies from England and the United States go to work for competing pharmaceutical companies to steal one of their biggest developments.

Film making 16/25
Video 18/25
Audio 18/25
Bonus Features 8/25
Total 60/100

Clair played by Julia Roberts and Ray played by Clive Owen work as spies, Clair for the CIA and Ray for England's MI6 when Clair steals documents Ray is transporting. After the incident Ray and Clair plot to steal the biggest secret innovation from a major chemical company that mostly makes cosmetics.

They spend years plotting and planning together finally to get on the inside of two companies one for real and the other as a double agent. Both are working together to get on the inside and get the goods that become a major breakthrough of some kind for one company.

In the end the companies use each other and the whole intelligence agencies that they created to both spy on the other and dupe people inside both companies. The two spies end up being conned by the owner, Howard Tully of the company that supposedly had a new formula for baldness.

Duplicity is a great film and shows just how spies really think, or at least how they might with always having to look over their shoulder and having nothing to look forward to for a retirement plan. The film goes deep into the supposed world of corporate espionage in a hilarious take on what people would do for money.

Julia Roberts and Clive Owen give great performances but the film just does not give them enough latitude to strut their stuff as much as they could. The film is a bit confusing at times as you have to look deeper into who is trying to con who but also with a bit of jumping in time.

The film starts when Clair and Ray first meet and do a little skipping around in time to the beginning of the main story of developing the new product and then goes back to their infiltration. When you do jump around things can be confusing a bit but the film does a good job of keeping things straight for the most part.

They work this jumping around into the story well but this is one of those movies that you do have to pay attention to so that you understand what is going on. While the story is great and one that could have made for a fantastic movie something in the actual film creation process did not come together for a great film.

Duplicity is a good movie but nothing more and once you do know the entire story and the big twist at the end the film is really not that great. The movie needed that extra special something to make it better but this was just not meant to be so we have a decent movie that is just above average.

The Blu-ray release is a great audio and video presentation and also just misses the mark of being perfect with great video and audio. The video is a great transfer to Blu-ray with great color, very well done dark and light with nice flesh tones.

The video is easy to see how well they did and goes from one location to the next for a wide variety of color, textures and scenery as they do skip around all over the world. You get to see just how well they did with all the aspects of the films transfer and video quality due to this broad range of scenery and it really does look good.

The video does have some slight problems that are noticeable from time to time but nothing that really takes away from the enjoyment of the movie. The audio is also very good in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 with great positional surround using all speakers but without many scenes that have loud action.

The film does not have those fantastic car chases or exploding action so you do have to really listen to the subtle noises and sounds that are in scenes. The extra content for Duplicity is a bit on the short side with only an audio commentary by writer director Tony Gilroy and editor/co-producer John Gilroy.

The bonus content is worth a listen if you're interested in how the film is made or additional comments on a scene by scene basis but not much more. Duplicity is a good film and again just misses the mark at being better for some reason, it's just hard to thoroughly enjoy the film with its jumping in time.

Duplicity is well worth a look as a rental and I would have to agree with a few other reviewers that it is worth owning on Blu-ray for a true fresh look at romantic comedies.