Duplicity...

[fajrdrako]

Went yesterday to see the movie Duplicity with Pat, Sandi, and Lyn.

It was one of many movies that had all of us us (sitting in the last row) laughing very shortly into the movie - we thought it witty and funny. The rest of the audience didn't laugh till practically the end. Do Canadians not laugh? How could they not?

Okay, it's not a rollicking comedy. It's witty and wry. Clever. Snarky. The plot: two spies (Clive Owen and Julia Roberts) meet and sleep together. Then all sorts of things happen, everyone is tricking everyone else (or not), there's industrial espionage and a mysterious formula that everyone wants, and it's a safe bet that most of the characters are lying most of the time, while the movie is trying to trick the audience into mis-guessing who is doing what to whom and why. And mostly it succeeds, which it can do, because the characters all know more than we do.

As we left the theatre, Sandi said, "That was like Ocean's Eleven, only with a couple instead of a group." Yup. Good call. Except I liked it better; Ocean's Eleven bored me.

Comments

[dewline.livejournal.com]

We laugh. But we argue over what to laugh about. Regularly.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

So true!

[benet.livejournal.com]

Though actually I thought Pitt and Clooney had great chemistry in Ocean's Eleven.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Pitt and Clooney are extraordinarily good actors, both of them. And they did have good chemistry because both of them are mightily charismatic. But despite that, Ocean's Eleven bored me, and lost my attention, and failed to make me laugh. Too many characters, maybe? If it had focussed more tightly on Pitt and Clooney, I might have liked it better.

[abrakadabrah.livejournal.com]

I used to like Pitt - but no more. His acting now is all surface, takes no risks, has no depth to it. Didn't used to be the case.

Clooney - he curdles my blood - he's an anticharismatic for me.

I hated the tone of the thing - the inside Hollywood joke.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I used to like Pitt - but no more. His acting now is all surface, takes no risks, has no depth to it.

I can't remember the last time I saw him. Troy, maybe? A movie in which no one shone. I always tend to remember him in Kalifornia, where he frightened me mightily. In a good way. And I don't often say that.

I've only seen Clooney in The Three Kings, where he impressed me. Surprisingly. I liked that movie a lot, and hadn't expected to.

No, wait, I also saw him in Ocean's Eleven, where the whole movie was boring. And obviously I tend to forget it entirely. Hmm. I'm not sure what conclusion to draw.

the inside Hollywood joke.

Yes; very much so.

[abrakadabrah.livejournal.com]

I can't remember the last time I saw him. Troy, maybe? A movie in which no one shone.

I just saw him in Benjamin Button - had the same reaction as Duplicity - deeply bored. Despite Cate Blanchette.

Now if only Cate Blanchette and Clive Owen would do a movie together - that would be a powerhouse. And Pitt and Roberts can do something irrelevant.

Though the truth is - the reason I thought Duplicity might be good is because I saw Roberts and Owens (as well as Portman and Law) in Closer - and that was just terrific, but it was the opposite kind of film, had a lot of depth and the actors had to really give a performance that reached inside, not just play edge and surface and glide.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I might have been persuaded to see Benjamin Button, but I heard someone compare it to Forrest Gump, a movie I hated with a passion. Very, very boring.

Now if only Cate Blanchette and Clive Owen would do a movie together

I'd love to see that. Add a good story and a good script... Yes.

I haven't seen Closer, but I'd like to. That was the kind of movie I was hoping Duplicity would be, but it went round in circles without ever going anywhere.

[abrakadabrah.livejournal.com]

I was, like, bored to tears throughout nearly the whole thing - despite Clive Owens. I thought it was like the Oceans franchise, too, which I loathed. Didn't care about the people, didn't care about the story, it kept on making me want to fall asleep, and then when I finally managed to shake off the torpor, I still had to sit there, deeply bored, until it was over.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Unlike with Ocean's Eleven, I wasn't bored, but I would have been if it had gone on any longer. I certainly didn't like the people, and enjoyed the story only insofar as it had some fun guessing-value, and made me laugh with its more pointed lines. If I'd known what it was like, I probably wouldn't have gone to see it, but the alternatives all sounded either violent or juvenile. Why don't they make movies for me any more?

If you were deeply bored, why didn't you leave the theatre?

[abrakadabrah.livejournal.com]

If you were deeply bored, why didn't you leave the theatre?

I was with someone who wasn't bored. Also, hope blooms eternal. Maybe it would get better. Also, I like to finish things - going to the movies is different that way than flipping around the tv. I might have left had I been by myself.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I was with someone who wasn't bored.

Ugh. Always tricky.

Also, hope blooms eternal. Maybe it would get better.

One can always hope! The plot ended up being really disappointing, I thought, though I liked the visual of Owen and Roberts sitting in the Rome hotel with a "What happened?" look on each of their faces. It was really incredibly superficial, all of it.

I might have left had I been by myself.

I have left movies, usually due to illness. I have slept in movies. I tend to do as you did - stick with it in the hopes it will get better, but once you're halfway through a dull movie, it rarely does.

I have walked out on movies a few times, but not as often as some of them deserved. Maybe it's self-punishment: Having wasted $10, I'm determined to waste a full two hours of my time as well, to make it worth the cost? I can only remember walking out on a play once.

At least I didn't hate Duplicity enough to want to leave. But I'd never want to see it again.

[topgeargirl2.livejournal.com]

There is a movie with Clive Owen called the Internationalist that I want to see. it was also stars Naomi Watts.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'd like to see that one, too.