|
Julia Roberts In 'Undercovers' Spy Sex Romp***
A slick combo romantic comedy/espionage noir in which
viewers may - or may not - be as duped as the characters,
Duplicity takes distrust as a vocation to a high art. There's
also lots of surveillance on hand, as to how literall y
undercover spy sex possibly plays out problematically behind
closed bedroom doors.***
Written and directed by Tony Gilroy (The Bourne Trilogy,
Michael Clayton), Duplicity stars Julia Roberts as CIA operative
Claire Stenwick and Clive Owen as MI6 agent Ray Koval. After
the two globe trotting masters of mutual deceit have a sexual
encounter in Dubai, during which Claire drugs Ray into submission
because she really needs to swipe those Egyptian military
codes from him, they meet again a few years later somewhere
else on the planet. And on far from friendly terms, when
they find themselves working for the same company.***
It seems that both have coincidentally quit government
positions, for more lucrative gigs in private sector industrial
espionage. And in a rare high point of this low intensity
intimate relationship in progress, Roberts does a fruitless
damage control vampy seductress showstopper, as she attempts
to squirms her way through one night stand pretend amnesia.
But too late, her male prey never forgot her toe rings.***
Subsequently dividing their time between hot dates
and ruthless yet strangely comical confrontations between
two multinationals run by scary CEO rivals Howard Tully
(Tom Wilkinson) and Richard Garsik (Paul Giamatti), Claire
and Ray come up with a scheme for a different kind of screwing.
That is, screwing the competing cutthroat companies and
dividing the profits.***
The problem here is not with the many hidden agendas
but with the movie, in that t here's a whole lot more sizzling
negative chemistry between Giamatti and Wilkinson, than
any of the positive kind between those two designated libidinous
lovebirds. Even when engaged in espionage style makeup sex
or repetitive, smartly stylized premeditated dumping scenarios
between lovers. It's as if Clive has emotionally crumbled
in the face of Julia's star power, and she's just decided
to play her celeb self for the duration.***
|
