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Duplicity

Crit

Or triplicity, or quadruplicity, or quintiplicity. A beautifully made scamflick in the tradition of The Sting and Nueve reinas: when you think you've got it sussed, think again.

Interesting New Yorker story recently, describing the thought processes behind some directing and editing choices by Tony Gilroy, including the decision to begin the film not in media res but five years earlier in Dubai, when Claire (Julia Roberts) seduces Ray in order to get access to the secrets he's carrying. Bad choice, in my opinion, but you can see why he does it. There is so much available here to confuse the inattentive viewer that it makes sense to ground us in something unambiguous at the start. What's lost, though, is any ambiguity in the scene that originally stood first: Ray finding Claire and trying to force her to admit that she recognizes him. The writing and performances of the verbal parrying are beautiful (and we get a couple of slightly different reprises later), but what would make the scene a really terrific mindfuck would be not knowing whether (1) Claire is gaming Ray, (2) Ray is confusing her w/ someone else, (3) Ray is, for reasons of his own, trying to play her, or (4) who knows what? Fortunately, [see second sentence of previous paragraph]: there's plenty of ambiguity and fun left in the sequence to serve.

Someday I'll see Tom McCarthy in a film and I'll think, "There's Tom McCarthy, the wonderful director of The Station Agent and The Visitor," instead of "There's that character actor who always inspires a visceral negative response in me."

Trailers

So many that I'll be lucky to remember them all (including a much more detailed version for X-Men Origins: Wolverine). Let's see, there was . . .

• Away We Go, filmed partly in my neighborhood, so that's easy, and pretty much a must. Then there was . . .
• Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, which is, as the title suggests, a riff on Dickens's Christmas Carol, so I'm interested, but the trailer appears equal parts charm (Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner as destiny's couple, Michael Douglas in the Marley's-ghost role) and cheese. Next . . .
• The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, the original of which I saw not long ago for the first time, and a remake of which would seem entirely pointless except for Denzel in the dweebish transit cop role played by Walter Matthau in the original. OK, have to do a little IMDb research to prompt myself for the last one . . . oh, right, how could I forget:
• Public Enemies--Depp as Dillinger; need I say more?