Duplicity

For a while, I was enjoying this movie, the umpteenth “return” of Julia Roberts to the spotlight. Then I figured out that writer-director Tony Gilroy had no real sense of direction with his little spy-vs.-spy thriller. Roberts plays a CIA agent who gets entangled (Or does she?) with an MI6 agent (Clive Owen) who digs her (Or does he?), and the two might or might not be playing each other as they seek to make big money in a con. Gilroy uses flashbacks to try to throw the viewer off track on the way to his not-so-clever conclusion. By the time the big payoff came around, I couldn’t give a damn, and Gilroy had worn out my patience. Roberts and Owen are just OK, with minimal chemistry between them. The best things about the film are Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson as rival corporate suits who may or may not be trying to double-cross each other.