Tony Gilroy has built a career writing and directing films involving government and corporate espionage, whether it be in the courtroom, or in a backroom, or on the mean streets themselves. He wrote all three Bourne films, and directed the George Clooney starring Michael Clayton, which was nominated for Oscar in '07. But rarely has the spy game been quite this much fun, or this sexy! Let's face it, Clive Owen has the market cornered on cool, even more so than the usual suspects like Brad Pitt and Clooney, both of whom are frequent Roberts co-stars.
As a team, Clive and Julia showed their impeccable chemistry in the blackest of blackhearted films, 2004's Closer. Here, they play a pair of corporate spies with a checkered and deep romantic past. Both former government agents, she of the CIA and he of MI6, the two decide to pool their resources to pull a Yojimbo, playing both sides of a bitter rivalry between two giant corporations racing to finish a product that promises untold riches. The two warring CEOs played by the pitch perfect Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson, form an interesting contrast to the two leads, as they are as square, and stiff and self-absorbed as humanly possible. The film kicks off with a hilarious slow motion battle royale between the two cushy stuffed shirts that closely resembles the limp wristed "slugfests" you'd find in an episode of The Real World.
The two agents, Claire and Ray, find that the dirty games of corporate greed and excess might not be quite as easy as they anticipated, and perhaps is even far more seedy than their previous work. What doesn't help in the matter is their blossoming love for each other, which only makes matters more complicated when both are attempting to stay one double-cross ahead of the other. The question soon becomes not just whether or not they can get away with one of the largest scams in history, but whether or not they can do it and keep their relationship intact.
Similarly to their previous pairing in Closer, both Roberts and Owen play a couple locked in a perpetual game of one-upmanship. Unlike that toxic relationship, here both are longtime loners, which is an emotional necessity for their line of work. The idea of trusting anyone is anathema, even when they run into perhaps the one person on the planet who understands them completely. They toy with each other's emotions, sometimes callously but often playfully, in a way that reminds me somewhat of another breezy romance, Out of Sight.
Gilroy, who also wrote the script, doesn't waste time getting bogged down in too many details. The product everyone is fighting for remains a mystery until practically the final leg of the film. And while it's discovery raises the stakes a little bit, it doesn't change the direction of the film. Gilroy is much more focused on characterizing these shady, conflicted characters. Every supporting bit character works on some level, from the members of Ray's squad who idolize him for being the "swinging dick" that he is. But my personal favorite Carrie Preston(from HBO's True Blood), who plays Barbara, a poor low level exec in the travel department who so eagerly falls for Ray's charms and finds herself getting pinned down in more ways than one.
I was a little worried about Gilroy's ability to handle a film that so carefully needed to toe the line between suspense and comedy, but I needn't have worried. There's no attempt to make the movie too hip for it's own good, a lesson Steven Soderbergh could've learned with the Oceans films. All it takes to make an effortlessly cool movie is a pair of stairs as electrifying and, well, effortlessly cool as Clive Owen and Julia Roberts. Here's hoping we get to see more of these two together in the future.
8/10
