‘Duplicity’

To scam or not to scam.

That is so not the question.

After all, everybody scams. Especially in the cutthroat culture "Duplicity" calls home.

A twisty yet relatively lighthearted thriller, "Duplicity" ranks as a rare studio release that's unapologetically aimed at grown-ups -- and unapologetically asks audiences to sit up and pay attention before they can sit back and smile.

It's clever, but not maddeningly so. Polished, but not to the point of off-putting arrogance. And definitely sexy, but in a teasingly flirtatious manner that doesn't reflect the prevailing in-your-face Hollywood aesthetic.

For the steam heat, credit the "Closer" team of Julia Roberts and Clive Owen, who again demonstrate undeniable chemistry as they thrust and parry their way through "Duplicity's" labyrinthine turns.

They're not the only fun couple on the scene, however.

In "Duplicity's" spy-vs.-spy opening scene, edgy MI6 operative Ray Koval (Owen) and smooth CIA agent Claire Stenwick (Roberts) get acquainted -- and then some -- at a 2003 embassy reception in Dubai.

We also meet a more hostile pair: corporate bigwigs Howard Tully (Tom Wilkinson) and Dick Garsik (Paul Giamatti), who are literally at each other's throats, their corporate jets parked opposite one another on the same tarmac, as their underlings look on in horror.

But all's fair in love and war -- and this is definitely the latter, as their competing firms battle for the hearts and minds of consumers.

Flash forward five years, to long-ago 2008, when Ray catches sight of Claire in New York's Grand Central Station -- and she claims not to recognize him.

Yeah, sure.

It's part of an elaborate ruse the undercover lovers have concocted, in which they spy for competing corporations and steal lucrative secrets to bankroll an into-the-sunset retirement.

Naturally, those two corporations are Tully's Burkett & Randle and Garsik's Equikrom -- and when Burkett & Randle's head honcho writes a letter indicating the imminent arrival of a new product, the One That Will Change Everything, the race is on.

There's just one problem: Claire and Ray just don't trust each other. Never have, never will. How can they, when their livelihoods (and their lives) depend on never-ending wariness and doubt?

And that, inevitably, complicates already complicated matters -- precisely as writer-director Tony Gilroy intends.

As in 2007's "Michael Clayton," Gilroy purports to explore corporate chicanery in all its gory glory.

Yet, while there's plenty of double-dealing (and double-crossing), "Duplicity's" really about something else.

After you cut through all the misdirection, its true focus shifts from the professional to the personal -- and the avid players at the center of the piece.

Gilroy deploys a jigsaw-puzzle narrative style, jumping back and forth in time, challenging audiences to keep up with the time-tripping -- and globe-trotting.

In the process, he explores the ever-shifting relationship between Ray and Claire, which ranges from outright antipathy to irresistibly magnetic attraction. Ah, but is it -- and could it ever be? -- that crazy little thing called love? Between two people who can't even trust themselves, let alone each other?

(It hardly seems coincidental that Claire's surname, Stenwick, bears a suspicious resemblance to one of Hollywood's all-time great dames, Barbara Stanwyck, who played her share of unforgettably shady ladies, from the fatal femme in "Double Indemnity" to the queen of all con artists in "The Lady Eve.")

Gilroy occasionally trips himself up with all that back-and-forthing, which sometimes slows things down a bit more than necessary.

And the at-loggerheads relationship between the movie's corporate chieftains -- the courtly, old-school Tully and the more down-to-earth, totally tyrannical Garsik -- proves so beguiling, at least in Wilkinson's and Giamatti's crafty hands, that you miss them when they're not around. (Lest we forget, Giamatti and Wilkinson also have great chemistry, previously displayed in HBO's "John Adams," for which both won Emmys -- Giamatti in the title role, Wilkinson as Ben Franklin.)

"Duplicity" also boasts other sly supporting turns, from "Milk's" Denis O'Hare as an oily security chief to "Doubt's" Carrie Preston as an office underling who -- much to Claire's dismay -- proves particularly susceptible to Ray's charms, conniving though they may be.

Speaking of charm, that's a crucial part of "Duplicity's" appeal.

It's vicarious fun to watch beguiling characters like these scheme and scam their way through such convoluted moves on their way to a presumably happy ending.

Roberts' Claire is too cool a customer to show much of the star's trademark sparkle, but she's still got it, along with a crisp efficiency that belies her vulnerability.

Owen, meanwhile, proves why he would have made a great James Bond. (We all know what happened there.) Yet Daniel Craig's gain also is ours, because Owen has the freedom in "Duplicity" to temper Ray's killer intensity with the kind of wry, knowing humor that makes him an ace game-player.

No wonder he and Claire are a great couple. Whether they ever stop playing games long enough to figure that out ...

Now that is the question.

Contact movie critic Carol Cling at ccling@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272.