Script released & reviewed- (just the intro) !!!

Tony Gilroy has got to be one of my favorite up-and-coming filmmakers, so I was quite thrilled to get my hands on Duplicity, Gilroy’s follow-up to the critically praised Michael Clayton, a film I absolutely adored. Duplicity just started filming with Oscar heavyweights Clive Owen, Julia Roberts, Paul Giamatti, Tom Wilkinson, and Billy Bob Thorton and is set for a 2009 release.

Now, the story:

"RAY (Owen) walks through midtown Manhattan with a phone to his ear. Ray is having an innocuous conversation, telling an old army story, but on the other end is DALE, slowly following half a block back.

Ray is being tailed by a man in a TURTLENECK, all while Dale watches and tells Ray what to do. Dale tells Ray to “tap the breaks” – Dale drops a pen and stoops to pick it up, forcing Turtleneck to pass.

Another block away, FETYOV approaches Ray and Dale from the opposite direction. Ray makes a sudden turn and before Turtleneck can follow – WHAM, Fetyov runs smack into him.

Now without his tail, Ray rushes through kitchens and back alleys to arrive at Grand Central Station. He’s waiting, meeting someone. He scans the crowd – and then he notices CLAIRE (Roberts). She spots Ray and tries to shuffle out before he can tag her.

Ray tells Dale the meeting is blown as he tries to follow Claire. She ducks in alleys and doorways, but Ray is always one step away. At last, Claire makes a few careful turns and arrives in Saks Fifth Avenue, having seemingly escaped Ray.

As she maneuvers to a side exit, Ray pops out. Ray claims he knows her all the while Claire tries to get away while denying that she has ever seen him before. But Ray insists she knows him – in fact, he’s screwed her, and then she screwed him over. According to Ray, she seduced him in Dubai, drugged him, and ransacked his hotel room.

Claire is scared and threatened, just trying to get away from Ray. As she does, her purse catches on his arm and falls, the contents spilling out. That’s when Ray notices a KEYCHAIN and realizes Claire was the drop, the person he was supposed to meet – Claire has just met her new handler.

Claire works espionage for corporate powerhouse B&R. But she’s really a counteragent working for Ray, one of the spies for EQUIKROM, B&R’s biggest competitor."

The two clearly have a history. Claire tries to walk away, but Ray sits her down and lets her know that this time, he’s in charge and there’s nothing she can do about it. But with their apparent history, can Ray and Claire really trust one another? Or can anyone really trust Claire and Ray?

B&R has a new product, something revolutionary and top secret in the works. Equikrom gets word, and with their new counter-agent, getting it should be a walk in the park. But in the world of espionage, is everything really as it seems?

What Michael Clayton did to high-powered law firms and fixers, Duplicity does to the business world and corporate espionage. But I just liked it – didn’t love it. The man knows how to write, there’s no question about that. Duplicity is taught and well-polished. The dialogue is crisp and the action sequences are tense and really shine. But there’s something missing.

The characters are well developed enough to convey what Gilroy is going for – two people, just like the characters of Michael Clayton or Jason Bourne, who have given everything to their line of work and really don’t have much of a life because of it. But with this, there wasn’t much depth. This has more a mindless fun, glossy and shimmery feel, but with not much underneath kind. But I don’t think Gilroy has tried to write a simple mindless thriller – he did those kind of movies years ago and seems to have gotten them out of his system.

There are flashbacks that reveal the true relationship between Ray and Claire (come on, with a title like Duplicity don’t tell me you didn’t see this coming) and in them, I get a sense that Gilroy was going for ele