At first glance, Duplicity is just another slick thriller. Julia Roberts and Clive Owen, con and come on to each other as undercover spies for dueling billion-dollar corporations. It's a classic formula with a 21st century twist of psychological sophistication.
Double crosses turn out to be triple crosses, key scenes are retold from multiple perspectives and we see what I call in-the-loop intricacy (when the character acts one way in order to fool the viewer, not other characters). On a psychological level, Julia and Clive interact and introspect with the emotional IQ of a benevolent mind reader. This movie is Mission Impossible meets Before Sunrise.
With Michael Clayton and now Duplicity, writer/director Tony Gilroy is following in the footsteps of Spielberg, Scorsese and other filmmakers whose films regularly win academy awards, trigger new stylistic trends and become immortalized by top 100 lists and film criticism classes. This rarified territory is occupied only by the elite filmmakers who understand the secret, unspoken formula for movie magic.
This "secret" formula involves an appreciation for the mysteries of the mind and an understanding of the ways in which the mind digests narrative. The audience must feel understood, drawn in, thrown off balance, challenged and, ultimately, inspired. This is somewhat analogous to what clinicians do in therapy. They must employ empathy to understand what is said, insight to understand what remains unsaid, creativity to push past perceived limits and knowledge of human nature to not push past real limits in an effort to pat and prod the client toward positive change.
Gilroy proves himself to be a psychologist disguised as a filmmaker as he seamlessly integrates many elements of this "secret" formula. I have outlined some key points. Yes, I just made them up ten minutes ago, but it took thousands of hours of film watching to arrive at these points. Now it will only take you two minutes.
1. The characters must be better than us but not perfect, because we want to be inspired by them, but not alienated.
2. The characters must reside in an alternate universe that is more exciting than our own but also grounded in the stress and pain of reality, because we want to escape from reality without feeling as if we are escaping.
3. As audience members, we want to be surprised with what ‘happens next' without being too distraught by our confusion, because we have a conflicted need for both the comfort of familiarity and the jolt of surprise.
4. We want our capacity to learn and to remember to be challenged but not overwhelmed.
5. We want the story be consistent with our values because we are programmed to become uncomfortable when what we become emotionally invested in is inconsistent with our world view.
Watch Michael Clayton and Duplicity and you will see these principles in action.
