DVD OF THE WEEK

DUPLICITY ****
Starring: Clive Owen, Julia Roberts, Tom Wilkinson, Paul Giamatti
Dir: Tony Gilroy

As writer of the Bourne trilogy and Michael Clayton, Tony Gilroy certainly is a dab hand at complex thrillers and here, for his first foray as director, he bats in the same ballpark, offering up a dazzling tale of industrial spying that throws in enough sophisticated wit and overall panache to propel us through what some might find an unreasonably complicated plot.
The set-up involves two high-level corporate spies, apparently working for feuding rival corporations and the discovery of a groundbreaking new formula for… something. It soon transpires that the two are working together and planning to steal the… whatever, and possibly aiming to double-cross each other in the process.
All this is rather cleverly laid out, with well-placed flashbacks, so that dialogue heard in one situation repeats in another and a clear picture is only built up slowly. It's initially disconcerting and forces the viewer to go along for the ride (or perhaps not, if this style of film irritates you).
But Gilroy has two big assets – Clive Owen and Julia Roberts. Both exude the sort of intelligent upmarket glamour that came with the likes of the Danny Ocean films and cruise easily through the tight witty script. They have great support from the warring CEOs, with both Giamatti and Wilkinson having a fine time.
Superior entertainment, not meant top be taken too seriously but served up with style and smarts.

Before getting onto the other reviews, let me just put in a plug for a film that started on Thursday at The Rialto Cinema. From the brilliant mind of Charlie Kaufman (writer of Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) comes Synecdoche, NY, his first film as director. Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and a host of brilliant women (Samantha Morton, Catherine Keener, Michelle Williams, Emily Watson, Hope Davis, Dianne Weiss, Jennifer Jason Leigh) it promises to be another complete brain-boggler and has had five star reviews everywhere. Cinema manager Clayton Morgan says 'It was meant to be going straight to DVD, but I thought that would be a real shame, so I'm just fitting it in as I can.” Fine effort Clayton! This is a strictly limited season so don't miss out…

The death of legendary writer and hell-raiser Hunter S Thompson has resulted in a veritable deluge of books and documentaries. The best in the latter category is Gonzo (****), a meticulously-assembled film from Alex Gibney, previously responsible for the excellent Enron doco and Taxi to the Dark Side. Even those well-versed in the good Doctor's extreme exploits will probably find new material here (much culled from the hard-to-find but equally good Breakfast With Hunter film) and the sober light it casts on his eventual suicide will prove both sad and oddly reassuring for fans.

While fliers warn of a killer on the loose three small-town Aussie teen slackers find a dead girl buried in the woods in Acolytes (**). They naturally decide to stay schtum and find the killer themselves. What could possibly go wrong? Perhaps employed as a reaction to the minimal budget, the excess of overly arty direction and showy editing tricks just about sinks proceedings, which become increasingly violent and stabby as the film progresses. Ultimately it's nasty and silly in about equal measures.

In Vinyan (**) Rufus Sewell and Emmanuelle Beart are parents mourning their son, lost in Phuket during the tsunami. Then a video fragment, possibly showing the lost child leads them to hiring some very dodgy people-smugglers (or worse) and heading to the dangerous local islands and jungles. Despite superb cinematography, impressive sound editing, and striking imagery, this promised supernatural thriller is handicapped by self-indulgence, slow pacing, and a serious lack of either the supernatural or the thrilling. It's more an exploration of grief and guilt, with the ending throwing up the depressing possibility that the whole damn thing might have just been a metaphor of some sort.