Written and directed by Tony Gilroy
Rated PG-13
(Three and one half stars)

The caper film requires a talent for cool. Tom Cruise won’t quite get you there. For best results you want to reach back in history for the likes of Cary Grant, but barring that Clive Owen will do handily in a pinch.

The charm of “Duplicity,” the latest film by “Michael Clayton” director Tony Gilroy, starts with its casting. This story about two spies who leave behind the security of a government paycheck to pull off a lucrative scam in corporate espionage brings together the exquisite low-spark chemistry of Clive Owen and Julia Roberts.

Ray Koval (Clive Owen) and Claire Stenwick (Julia Roberts) meet cute as competing government agents trying to out hustle each other for some stolen documents. The opening sequence is slick, even a little clichéd, as Owen and Roberts engage in a dance of seduction that lacks for nothing except sincerity. The two actors are having such a good time the with the urbane cynicism of their respective roles you can’t help but think that even if the film feels a little rote, they’re going to be a lot of fun to watch.

And then in the very next scene, Tony Gilroy steps in to remind you not to sell his film short. Cut to Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson as two competing CEO’s who suddenly lunge at each other when they meet at an airport. The two engage in comical slow-motion fisticuffs as their underlings watch in horror. It may be the best scene in the film even though you don’t have a clue as to what’s going on. And that’s exactly where Gilroy wants you.

Ray, who came out on the short end in the opening scene, can’t get Claire out of his mind. When they cross paths again, he has a different sort of proposition: that they team up to pull a high stakes scam in the private sector. Ray’s epiphany is that in the hyper-competitive corporate world, huge egos cloud judgment and will make hot-headed tycoons like Howard Tully (Tom Wilkinson) and Richard Garsik (Paul Giamatti) easy pickings for a couple of players like Ray and Claire. Better yet, stolen corporate secrets have a higher street value than anything a government produces. Ray and Claire hire on with Tully and Garsik’s opposing corporate intelligence units and look for an opening.

Tony Gilroy both wrote and directed “Duplicity.” In most films that would be cause for caution. Writer/directors tend to shortchange one job description on behalf of the other and the film suffers as a result. As Gilroy proved in the masterful “Michael Clayton,” he is the exception.

Gilroy loads “Duplicity” up with colorful characters who brilliantly manipulate and betray everyone in their path. The plot has so many twists and turns you’re never sure of your footing but it’s an entertaining ride just trying to keep up. Gilroy’s editing cuts back and forth across time, parsing out Ray and Claire’s back-story to keep us wondering just how solid their partnership is.

But the biggest pleasure of “Duplicity” may be—as it often is in his films—Paul Giamatti. Giamatti’s Richard Garsik is the egotistical hot head who serves as the counterweight to Ray and Claire’s cool. He’s the kind of jerk who was the one kid in high school who got tossed in a locker and deserved it.

While Giamatti chews up the scenery with his pyrotechnic Garsik, Tom Wilkinson keeps pace with a sinister take on Howard Tully. These two provide a sideshow of corruption that makes Ray and Claire’s foray into larceny seem like a public service. Gilroy has a genius for cooking up strong supporting characters. Just as Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swinton lit up “Michael Clayton,” here Wilkinson teams up with Giamatti to infuse tension into those scenes where Owen and Roberts aren’t present.

While Gilroy puts together an exceptional ensemble cast and brings it alive with a witty script, the biggest compliment is that you don’t know if Ray and Claire are going to reach their payday—or hold together their tenuous romance—until the final scene.

With “Duplicity,” Tony Gilroy has produced two first-rate thrillers in a row. What must be keeping him up at night is how he’s going to keep that roll going.