Duplicity...
Mar. 29th, 2009 09:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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.
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Date: 2009-03-30 01:22 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2009-03-30 02:20 am (UTC)Clooney - he curdles my blood - he's an anticharismatic for me.
I hated the tone of the thing - the inside Hollywood joke.
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Date: 2009-03-30 02:35 am (UTC)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.
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Date: 2009-03-30 02:47 am (UTC)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.
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Date: 2009-03-30 03:00 am (UTC)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.
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Date: 2009-03-30 02:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-30 02:22 am (UTC)If you were deeply bored, why didn't you leave the theatre?
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Date: 2009-03-30 02:25 am (UTC)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.
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Date: 2009-03-30 02:31 am (UTC)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.
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Date: 2009-03-30 04:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-30 01:25 pm (UTC)