This Amazon Original written, directed & produced by Tyler Perry titled “Duplicity” makes me believe that the film mogul may just have a template for his films, especially the ones within this genre (thriller).
I guess it’s high time he ditched that and looks for something fresher, else, some movies from his Chambers may just keep making a viewer like myself have de ja vu moments whilst watching.
Maybe I had high hopes delving into this. Maybe I’ve seen way too many movies with these concepts or, maybe not cause, the whole outcome of this film leaves me wondering whether the entire team deliberated on the storyline, plot and ultimately its execution.
Let me put this into perspective…
The story had huge prospects. It reminds us of the many gun violence & police brutality in the US where whïte officers unalive young black guys simply because they looked a certain type of way. A case in point - George Floyd, Richard ‘Randy’ Cox and some others.
This theme, alongside the consequent outrage from the public and the plea bargains and settlement, were all too familiar, which were potentially admirable as central pieces. However, the plot took a rather underwhelming deviating approach or turned so much so that what should have been the central focal point wasn’t fully explored, and most of the characters lacked depth.
I mean, There was ample time for a duration of 1hour 49minutes to have made for a better outcome, the end which had some exciting action and intrigue albeit appeared to have been ladened with so much to tackle all at once in the last 20minutes or thereabouts. The movie, as a result, then felt rushed in the concluding scenes.
As if that wasn’t annoyingly frustrating enough, the plot twist is such that if you’re an ardent follower of Tyler Perry’s works, you must have predicted unarguably to a 95% accuracy of the turn out of events from the get-go of the movie. In all honesty, the whole time, this movie pretty much kept flashing “Mea Culpa” and even “Acrimony” of years past all from the same producer in my face.
Some decisions made by the protagonist, too, had me helplessly rolling my eyes and almost screaming at my screen like, "Who does that?" For instance, you already have information concerning a suspect, yet you follow them to an isolated building with someone you no longer trust as much? Come on! This film was meant to be for an adult audience, not for kids straight out of kindergarten.
The end was worse off! (Spoiler alert, people!) Marley comes out of the water after swimming for her life, and her hair, clothes, and face aren’t dripping with water? I laughed so hard cause it didn't make sense. Do I even talk about her very last action?
Don’t get me wrong, this was enjoyable, entertaining, relaxing and educational to watch with some really good & compelling acting (especially from Kat Graham as Marley, Meagan Tandy as Fela, Joshua Adeyeye as Rodney etc), strong take home-message about betrayal, some mindblowingly shocking last minute twist and a vividly crystal clear picture quality and cinematography. It’s just that the many plot holes were too obvious to ignore!
Could it be that Tyler Perry does these (leaving as many flaws) deliberately just to spark conversations? Cause, apparently, with years of experience in filmmaking, this level should be for a fresh drama school graduate. Seriously!
DUPLICITY as a movie did not have explicit sex scenes, but the amount of swear words is enough for you to keep this away from younger viewers as it’s rated 15!
I hope that this was interesting to read. Thanks for coming around.
