Duplicity

 

HEADLINE:  ** Who Can You Trust? **

TITLE:  DUPLICITY

Quality:  * * *     Acceptability:  -2

SUBTITLES:  None

WARNING CODES:

Language:  LLL

Violence:  V

Sex:  S

Nudity:  NN

 

RATING:  PG-13

RELEASE:  March 20, 2009

TIME:  125 minutes

STARRING:  Julia Roberts, Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, and Tom Wilkinson

DIRECTOR:  Tony Gilroy

PRODUCERS:  Jennifer Fox, Kerry Orent and Laura Bickford

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER:  Ryan Kavanaugh

WRITER:  Tony Gilroy

BASED ON THE NOVEL/PLAY BY:  N/A

DISTRIBUTOR:  Universal Pictures/General Electric (G.E.)

 

CONTENT:  (PaPa, B, LLL, V, S, NN, A, MM) Strong pagan worldview with some light moral implications; about 39 obscenities (including one "f" words and many "h" words), 14 strong profanities and eight light profanities; light violence includes a man tailing a man is knocked down so the man can get away and a thief handcuffed to furniture has his eyes and mouth taped up and struggles later to get free; implied fornication, kissing and man kisses female partner's naked back after implied sex has occurred; upper male nude, brief partial rear female nudity in one shot and another shot from the side shows partial view of woman's breast; alcohol use; no smoking; and, lying, deceit, dishonesty, stealing, and CIA spy drugs British spy unconscious to steal some state secrets he stole, but movie also implies that crime and dishonesty don't really pay and that constant dishonesty can lead to a serious lack of trust.

 

GENRE:  Comic Spy Thriller/Heist Thriller

INTENDED AUDIENCE:  Older teenagers and adults

 

Please address your comments to:

 

Jeffrey R. Immelt, Chairman/CEO, General Electric

Jeff Zucker, President/CEO, NBC Universal

Ron Meyer, President/COO, Universal Studios

Marc Shmuger, Chairman

David Linde, Co-Chairman

Universal Pictures

100 Universal City Plaza

Universal City, CA  91608-1085

Phone:  (818) 777-1000

Web Page:  www.universalstudios.com

 

SUMMARY:  DUPLICITY stars Julia Roberts and Clive Owen in an entertaining but complicated story about two industrial spies and lovers trying to steal information about an important product from two rival companies. The movie shows that crime and dishonesty don't pay, but there is some other immoral content that is not rebuked, including pre-marital sex and plenty of foul language.

 

IN BRIEF:

 

DUPLICITY, starring Julia Roberts and Clive Own, opens at the U.S. Consulate in Dubai. A British spy, Ray Kovic, picks up a beautiful woman, Claire Stenwick. During a rendezvous in Ray's hotel room, Claire, a CIA agent, drugs Ray and steals some important Egyptian documents he has stolen. Five years later, Ray starts working in New York City as an industrial spy for CEO Dick Garsik. Garsik's espionage team is trying to get the formula for the top-secret product that his rival, Howard Tully, is announcing. Ray realizes Claire is the inside woman in Tully's company helping his boss steal the formula. A series of flashbacks reveals that Ray and Claire have actually become lovers, despite the first scene. They want to steal Tully's secret formula for themselves. The question is, can Ray and Claire trust one another?

 

DUPLICITY and its multiple flashbacks are a little too complicated to be thoroughly entertaining. Even so, the movie is fun, with crackling dialogue and fine performances. The story shows that crime and dishonesty don't pay, but there is some immoral content that is not rebuked, including pre-marital sex and plenty of foul language.