Duplicity (2008)

This was fun. Tony Gilroy, Oscar nominee for both writing and directing Michael Clayton (2007) and writer of the Bourne series (2002-7) and Delores Claiborne (1995), has crafted a mildly complex tale of corporate espionage, starring Clive Owen (some of my favorites: Croupier (1998), Greenfingers (2000), Children of Men (2006), and Inside Man (2006)) and Julia Roberts (I liked her in Mystic Pizza (1988), Something to Talk About (1995), Erin Brockovich (2000) for which she won her Oscar, and Runaway Bride (1999), among others, and she starred with Owen in the depressing Closer (2004), where I first heard the wonderful Suzanne Vega song "Caramel," and which earned him an Oscar nomination. Roberts is also supposed to star in the planned 2011 movie of Eat, Pray, Love). I would have liked to hear her belly laugh, but her character was too wrapped up in all the Spy vs. Spy games to really let go. And Jack said he would have liked to see more nudity. Paul Giamatti (who has more movie credits than Roberts, but my faves are American Splendor (2003) and Sideways (2004)--I didn't see HBO's John Adams, which won him an Emmy) was dependably manic. The always effective Tom Wilkinson (he's always so good I can hardly choose what to list for him; see The Full Monty (1997), Oscar & Lucinda (1997), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Cassandra's Dream (2007), and Michael Clayton) was a little creepy, as his character required, and Kathleen Chalfant, who will start a series arc in the new season of FX's Rescue Me (which I love) sometime this spring/summer, lent a quiet gravity to her role. We were somewhat surprised by the ending.