Meta Critic Watch: "Duplicity"

Director: Tony Gilroy
Writer: Tony Gilroy
Producer: Jennifer Fox and Laura Bickford
Starring: Clive Owen, Julia Roberts, Tom Wilkinson, Paul Giamatti, Denis O’Hare, Thomas McCarthy

In "Duplicity" opposing secret operatives Claire Stenwick (Julia Roberts) and Ray Koval (Clive Owen) struggle to decide whether they want their careers or each other. Despite the a-list cast, bountiful budget, and all other the tools for success, viewers on Metacritic.com gave the film an average rating of 69/100, with ratings varying from a disgruntled 25 to the perfect 100.

Mick LaSalle of "San Francisco Chronicle" was the unfortunate soul that was the least satisfied person on the site. The entire review is a repetitive pan on the same short-comings: "His screenplay for "Duplicity," about corporate spying, is more than confusing. It's opaque." Although Owens and Roberts' redeeming qualities are allowed to shine, the audience is left wondering what the hell is going on. Mick LaSalle brands Gilroy's cheek with a 25/100.

The "Austin Chronicle's" Kimberley Jones summed up her opinion of the movie by breaking down the opening scene: "It’s a sparky way to start a picture, but the scene goes on too long and turns lumbering." For her the techniques and plot are fun, but too disjointed and lacking in direction. For her director Tony Gilroy and actor Clive Owen were obviously out of their element. The film exhibits flashes of potential, but is unsure if it wants to be a witty-crime film, or a dark drama. Unsurprisingly, Ms. Jones yawned a 50/100.

The venerable Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" found a good number of redeeming qualities in the film, but too many negatives to award the film a rating higher than a 75/100. While he appreciates the depth and complexity of the plot and the quality of the acting, as with the other reviewers, the film flutters with "a plot so ingenious that at the end, we know more or less what happened, but mostly less."

Mike Clark of "USA TODAY" called the film the first "satisfying, big-star entertaining spring lift" movie of the year. He was in love with the "trickiest plot structure in recent memory" and that the actors fight with sharp, witty dialogue. The star actors lived up to their role, the writing and plot challenged the viewer to guess who was screwing who over, and the shooting locations and gadgetry are all superb. For those reasons Mike Clark gave the film an 88/100.

A. O. Scott from "The New York Times" may be one of the happiest reviewers of the past week considering he gave the film the highly coveted rating of 100/100. Like the rest of the reviewers, Scott loved the highly intelligent dialogue sparked by the steamy chemistry between Owens and Roberts, and the fierce hatred between rivals Wilkinson and Giamatti. Unlike the other reviewers, Scott found the twists and turns and triple-crosses in this caper to be not only extremely well thought out, but genius in their complexity.

Apparently Gilroy's genius is hard to understand considering there was only one other 100 rating. But the common consensus is that while the dialogue and star actors are entertaining, Gilroy fails to fully convey to the viewer all that is really taking place in the plot.