新片duplicity
新片duplicity
有谁新片duplicity对有期待? 我觉得美国甜心和BMW帅哥这搭配养眼,剧片只要别写得太糟糕就行。
3 stars from Roger Ebert
Duplicity
Who can you trust, if
you can't trust yourself?
Release Date: 2009
Ebert Rating: ***
/ / / Mar 18, 2009
by Roger Ebert
Julia Roberts and Clive Owen generate fierce electricity in "Duplicity," but we (and they) don't know if it's romantic or wicked. They're Claire and Ray, government spies (she CIA, he M16) who meet on assignment in Dubai; she sleeps with him, then steals his secret documents. They both enter the private sector, working for the counterespionage departments of competing shampoo giants. At stake: The formula for a top-secret formula that, when revealed, does indeed seem to be worth the high-tech games being played to steal and protect it.
The movie resembles Mad magazine's "Spy vs. Spy" series, elevated to labyrinthine levels of complexity. Nothing is as it seems, or even as it seems to seem; triple-crosses are only the warm-up. What's consistent through all of the intrigues is the (certain) lust and (possible) love between them. The theory is, they'll scheme together to steal the formula, sell it in Switzerland, split millions and spend the rest of their lives spying on each other under the covers.
They're both such incurable operatives that neither one can trust the other. We're not even sure they trust themselves. They play an emotional cat-and-mouse game, cleverly scripted by director Tony Gilroy ("Michael Clayton") to reflect classic rom-coms; both actors seem to be channeling Cary Grant.
Claire and Ray seem to have hollow hearts. Can they, in their trade, sincerely love anyone? Knowing all the tricks, they know the other one knows them, too.
This removes some of the romantic risk from the story, replacing it with a plot so ingenious that at the end, we know more or less what happened, but mostly less. That's fun, but it deprives Roberts of her most winning note, which is lovability.
This isn't a two-hander; Gilroy uses his supporting cast for key roles. Tom Wilkinson and Paul Giamatti play the two enemy soap tycoons, both consumed by desperate intensity. Carrie Preston steals a scene from Roberts with her hilarious role as a company travel agent who may have been seduced by Ray but bubbles over about how glad she is that it happened. Roberts is amusingly inscrutable as she listens.
"Duplicity" is entertaining, but the complexities of its plot keep it from being really involving: When nothing is as it seems, why care? The fun is in watching Roberts and Owen fencing with dialogue, keeping straight faces, trying to read each other's minds. That, and admiring the awesome technology that goes into corporate espionage. I don't understand why Wall Street executives deserve millions, but I can see why these two might. All the money they hope to steal, added together, wouldn't amount to an annual bonus for one of the bankruptcy masterminds.
乡音无改鬓毛衰
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- Joined: 2007-12-14 16:32
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- Posts: 265
- Joined: 2007-12-14 16:32
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- Posts: 265
- Joined: 2007-12-14 16:32
小K看过 Body of Lies 吧?这片儿刚出来的时候我完全没兴趣,但是今天在店里看见 DVD,忽然有点熟悉感,拿起来一看盒子,哇,差点大叫出声。我看过,不,听过这本小说的!! 是华盛顿邮报常驻中东的资深记者 David Ignatius 写着玩儿的惊险小说。小说本身还算 so-so 啦,有很多有真实感的细节,但是写人物就比较的 bland, 干巴巴的没什么个性。
政治上 Ignatius 算是中间派,没有特别强烈的立场,稍微有一点偏左。因为他对中东的历史和背景之类了解很多,对美国在中东的政策也很熟悉,有些技术内容还有点意思。小说里面很小心地不站在任何一边,既没有同情恐怖分子,也没有太美化西方间谍,采取比较 matter of fact 的口吻进行描述。不过他会流露出一些对阿拉伯社会规则和文化的强烈兴趣,有点“神秘的东方” vs 愚蠢自大的西方势力这种类型的感慨,一方面有意思,一方面仍是殖民主义传统。
DVD 还没看,不过看简介好像把小说里一个极其重要的成分给砍了,整个调子似乎改得很西方化,俗套了。最让人哭笑不得的是书里一个很重要的人物。约旦情报局的传奇式领导,是个意大利演员演的, Ignatius 大概很郁闷啦。而且美、约两边的领导都年纪不对头,在小说里,他们俩象征了男主角的父亲地位,这个微妙的含义(也许作者都不是有意识地这么设计,但效果就很明显),显然 Ridley Scott 根本就没明白。
政治上 Ignatius 算是中间派,没有特别强烈的立场,稍微有一点偏左。因为他对中东的历史和背景之类了解很多,对美国在中东的政策也很熟悉,有些技术内容还有点意思。小说里面很小心地不站在任何一边,既没有同情恐怖分子,也没有太美化西方间谍,采取比较 matter of fact 的口吻进行描述。不过他会流露出一些对阿拉伯社会规则和文化的强烈兴趣,有点“神秘的东方” vs 愚蠢自大的西方势力这种类型的感慨,一方面有意思,一方面仍是殖民主义传统。
DVD 还没看,不过看简介好像把小说里一个极其重要的成分给砍了,整个调子似乎改得很西方化,俗套了。最让人哭笑不得的是书里一个很重要的人物。约旦情报局的传奇式领导,是个意大利演员演的, Ignatius 大概很郁闷啦。而且美、约两边的领导都年纪不对头,在小说里,他们俩象征了男主角的父亲地位,这个微妙的含义(也许作者都不是有意识地这么设计,但效果就很明显),显然 Ridley Scott 根本就没明白。
此喵已死,有事烧纸