Someone landed here at Pullquote thanks to the search terms "sex on a stick" and "Clive Owen." To my dismay [and theirs, no doubt], the particular post that Google in its infinite wisdom pulled up was a pan of the excrable Shoot 'em Up, which included plaudits for Owen's turn as rakish Sir Walter Raleigh in the second Elizabeth flick and happened to use the "sex on a stick" phrase that paid.
At first, I took this visit as a sign to cash in my chips and head home. Clearly there was nothing more for me to accomplish in the blogging arena. Then I started to think about Owen's most recent multiplex treat, Duplicity. Based on the anecdotal evidence garnered through Twitter feeds and whatnot, I was not the only person who turned to this creamy Hollywood treat after coming home from sxsw. Wonder why?
I'd wager the answer would have something to do with the collective star power of Clive and Julia Roberts. The glamorous pair play dueling spies, first governmental, then corporate. There are quadruple crosses and stealthy trysts and globe-hopping hijinks, the whole schmear. Writer/director Tony Gilroy's whipped up one high-end bonbon, where each bite carries the risk of something both bitter and delicious.
To that end there are a lot of shots of Julia's [pregnancy-enhanced] bust and stick-skinny stems, fractured screens meant to put us in mind of the original Thomas Crown Affair, and an over-reliance on rack focus shots that seem to suggest the two stars are too radiant to share a single two shot. The 'Fesser and I enjoyed ourselves immensely... in the moment.
Since then, though, I've been mulling over Roberts' starring roles in the Oughts. Much has been made about Julia's return to her rightful above-the-line perch after several years of glorified cameos, animation voice work, and ensemble work. And it is a canny comeback, leveraging all of Roberts' hard-won residual star power to propel a smart script by a buzzy Oscar-nominated writer/director to the screen. But peel away all the subterfuge and double-dealing of Duplicity and you'll find that Julia's picked up right where she left off in her last leading-lady part, in 2003's Mona Lisa Smile.
It's been my argument that as the art history prof in the women's college flick, Roberts' true lesson plan was not exposing her cosseted conservative charges to abstract expressionism. Rather it was to school the starlets--Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, Gennifer Goodwin, Maggie Gyllenhaal--who might consider angling for the "next Julia Roberts" crown that there was only one.
In Duplicity, Clive Owen's Ray Koval appears to be getting a similar education in stardom. Ray's not as smart as Roberts' Claire, but he is smitten. It's Claire who comes up with the inside job, and Claire who constantly pulls the rug out from under Ray, announcing she's taken a job or testing his loyalty. Each time, she's saying in essence, "Here is how it's done. Here is how you seize the screen and never truly cede it." Ray is left holding the bag.
Owen as Ray puts up a good fight but has the grace to realize he's being beaten by one of the best. True, Roberts hasn't been this pale and drawn since Mary Reilly, but it works for her now. Paradoxically, it announces that a star of her caliber can flaunt crows' feet and womanly hips and that after-all-these-years still awkward walk and effortlessly wipe the screen with all comers.
Oh, and a word about the slo-mo opening-credits fight between rival execs Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson that got all the critics in a lather. Surely I can't be the only person who saw it and thought of this?
