Tony Gilroy's follow-up to Michael Clayton sees Julia Roberts and Clive Owen playing ex-CIA/MI6 agents, who have combined forces to take on jobs in the private sector in an attempt to fleece the companies involved. The narrative is rather broken, there are flashbacks every now and again to reveal more about Roberts and Owen's past and how it fits into what they're doing now. Essentially they met whilst still spies when Roberts seduced him then stole information, so that added to the nature of their professions means neither can trust each other.
Owen is the reason to see this film, he's charming and gets most of the amusing lines. Therein lies the problem though, if you go in expecting a comedy then you won't think it's that amusing, but if you go expecting a spy thriller then you'll think it's very funny. It's a mix and not a very successful one. Roberts is fine but sleepwalks through her role and Paul Giamatti just shouts a lot whilst Tom Wilkinson doesn't (they're the bosses of the two companies Roberts and Owen work for).
The biggest let down with this film is just how broadly predictable it is. It's very obvious in general what's going on so the only intrigue is in the specifics, but such minute details are afterthoughts. The structure doesn't really add much to the film, it breaks up the flow and tries to keep you guessing but doesn't really succeed in that.
Overall though it's a decent film, the acting's fine, it's very nice to look at and there's the occasional bit of split-screen or interesting editing which has a retro-vibe to it. It's just, like Michael Clayton, not that special though. Not bad, not good, if anything it's almost offensively watchable, in that if they can make a decent film without any particular area of excellence, then imagine what might have been possible had they pushed above and beyond. So an alright way to spend a couple of hours, but that's all it is.