Duplicity

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Whip-smart, sexy and delightfully twisty romantic thriller.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Superior entertainment, the most elegantly pleasurable movie of its kind to come around in a very long time.

The New Yorker David Denby

An enormously enjoyable hybrid, a romantic comedy set at the center of a caper movie. But the froth arrives with steel bubbles--the tone is amused and mordantly satirical.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Smart, droll and dazzling to look at and listen to, writer-director Tony Gilroy's effervescent, intricately plotted puzzler proves in every way superior to his 2007 success "Michael Clayton."

Village Voice Scott Foundas

Comedy seems to have liberated Gilroy, who directs Duplicity with the high gloss and fleet-footed hustle of a golden-age Hollywood craftsman.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

A throwback to the days of old-school caper movies like "To Catch a Thief," Duplicity is just the kind of sophisticated amusement you would expect from filmmaker Tony Gilroy.

Charlotte Observer Roger Moore

Duplicity sparkles with wit.

USA Today Mike Clark

So with its smart writing delivered by an in-synch quartet, savor Duplicity as the ideal spring gift.

Washington Post Dan Kois

It's smart, it's for grown-ups and it lets Julia Roberts laugh, if just once.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

The movie is fun, with plenty of intrigue and suspense that will have audiences clutching at their arm rests.

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

This is a role that the Julia Roberts of 1999 couldn't have played, and that's fine. The one we have here is much better.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Duplicity so thoroughly equates sex and money that, in a manner apt for a recession, the audience is rewired when it's over. You don't care whether they love each other. You just want to see them paid.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie resembles Mad magazine's "Spy vs. Spy" series, elevated to labyrinthine levels of complexity.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The look and sound of Duplicity is half the payoff.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Duplicity doesn't have depth -- but it does have Julia Roberts, in full Hollywood movie-star mode.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

Duplicity is perfectly titled: There isn't a second of this smart, twisty, grown-up thriller in which someone isn't lying, cheating or stealing, often from someone they claim to love.

TV Guide Perry Seibert

Tony Gilroy deserves the lion's share of credit for making such a delightful movie. His writing and direction find the perfect balance of comedy, sexiness, and tension.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

It's an odd duck: a labor-intensive piece of light entertainment.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

So this is a light/bright movie that actually illuminates our dull grey lives, reminding us that intrigue can be, well, intriguing. And damn sexy too.

Slate Dana Stevens

There are so many leaps back and forth in time, so many twists and countertwists and double fake-outs, that we keep losing track of who (including ourselves) is supposed to know what when.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Duplicity zips from one elaborate piece of hugger-mugger to the next. But at a certain point (for me, it was Rome), boredom sets in.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

On the plus side, if you're flummoxed by the twisty plot or its occasional holes, you can always gaze contentedly at Clive Owen and be wholly entertained.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Given the assault of devilishly clever plot twists that buzz-bomb your brain like a two-hour binge of quad-shot lattes, Duplicity goes down as too smart for its own good.

Premiere Olivia Putnal and Patrick Parker

Even the great cast didn’t make following the convoluted plot any easier. And all that jumping around makes the film feel a lot longer than it is.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Its ironic complexities tease the brain without pleasing the heart.

Film Threat Matthew Sorrento

A smooth ride boils down to a claptrap, 'Usual Suspects'-style finale.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Duplicity is deeply shallow--cheap reversals all the way down. But it's a passably amusing brainteaser.

Empire Angie Errigo

The chemical combustion just isn't there between Julia and Clive, and you can't help wondering if Gilroy wrote this with George Clooney in mind. Still, a glamorous, diverting escapade that over-30s in particular can enjoy.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

The female lead in Duplicity calls for the kind of atomic, glow-in-the-dark, Rita Hayworth-in-Gilda sexuality that is most assuredly out of Roberts' range. Angelina Jolie effortlessly conjures up that kind of fire-breathing sexiness. Roberts? Not so much.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

For all the glam and swank, the film is essentially a bright, shiny, empty puzzle. The puzzlemaking by writer-director Tony Gilroy is clever but most frequently an end in itself.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

The structure of Duplicity is its own worst enemy.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

With its one-liners and welter of double-crosses, it should settle on the video shelf between "Intolerable Cruelty" and "Mr & Mrs. Smith."

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

Gilroy zings the film with tantalizing bits of absurdity (one wonders, wistfully, what the Coen brothers would have done with this material), but too often he returns to his darker, more ponderous instincts.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

More than confusing. It's opaque.