Duplicity features Julia Roberts and Clive Owen as a couple of spies who work for rival agencies. They meet when he is her mission, and then things get a little convoluted. Claire (Roberts) has an idea that could make the two of them very rich: they get out of the government business and go private. Ray (Owen) takes a little to warm up to the idea, but eventually he is on board. Then, a series of plot twists, flashbacks, and a whole lot of lying goes down.

This movies is just too confusing. It’s in the vein of the original Mission Impossible without the cheesy masks or self destructing messages, but also, without the neat little ending wrapped up in a big bow. Just when you think the story is going one way, it flips, completely derailing your train of thought. Ten minutes later it happens again. And again. Throughout the entire film. Instead of the movie being about the story, it’s about how many times the audience can be conned.

Plot twists and the unexpected are usually good things in movies. It’s fun to watch something play out in a way you didn’t see coming. Duplicity sucks all the fun out of trying to solve the mystery though. It’s like being on a merry-go-round for a familiar ride that suddenly breaks down, goes backwards, only to speed up when it’s set on the right track, and then crash to a screeching halt. It’s not fun. It’s disorienting.