Frozen pizzas. Face cream — or lotion. Shampoo. These three items are not what one might think would be major plot points in a film about con jobs or corporate espionage. In the film, “Duplicity,” that’s otherwise too convoluted to make any sense until the back story is revealed at the end, I guess frozen pizza, face cream and shampoo cause “Duplicity” to stay a little bit grounded with real world items.

If that confused you, I’m sorry for being too honed in on writer/director Tony Gilroy’s mode of thinking. I bet he enjoys making audiences not understand the entirety of his films. Although, as the writer of the “Bourne” trilogy and the writer/director of “Michael Clayton” — which garnered him two Oscar nominations — he was able to make cohesive, interesting and smart films. “Duplicity” straddles the incoherent line. Thanks to a whirlwind wrap-up at the very end, audiences won’t be left feeling too disappointed.

This isn’t to say that “Duplicity” isn’t a good movie — it sort of is. The performances from Clive Owen and Julia Roberts as corporate spies who attempt con jobs on their bosses are rather intriguing. Their on-screen chemistry is luke-warm, but the believability of them as professional spies hits more of a rolling boil. This allows the audience to become wrapped up in the story, so much so that it’s difficult to know who is working for whom.

At the very least “Duplicity” is entertaining enough to keep audiences sucked in. At times, the glimpses of an excellent film shine through. Maybe that was the strategy Gilroy was leaning toward: Make the film as convoluted as possible, with just enough character interest and development to keep from going off the deep end.

“Duplicity” begins in Dubai in July 2003 where Ray (Owen), a former MI6 agent, meets Claire (Roberts), an ex-CIA agent, for the first time. After spending the night together, Claire drugs him and completes her assigned mission — to steal important code documents from him. During the opening credit sequence, a slow-motion fight breaks out between Richard Garsik (Paul Giamatti) and Howard Tully (Tom Wilkinson), two obvious rival CEOs who, as the audience later finds out, will do anything to take the other down.

Time fast-forwards five years to Grand Central Station where Claire and Ray meet up again, this time seemingly unaware that they are now working together for the same company — Garsik’s. The drop that Claire made to Ray included a copy of a speech to be made by Tully introducing a revolutionary new product his company would be developing and Garsik wants his hands on it. The film jumps back two years to Rome where once again Ray sees Claire, and gets her back from Rome — by canceling her wake-up call, not drugging her. As two intelligent corporate spies, they begin to have a relationship and a plan to conspire against their respective bosses, steal millions and run away to Rome together.

Through various time periods between 14 months previous and present day, the audience learns that Tully is working with a young genius who has developed a cure for baldness. Meanwhile, Ray believes that his and Claire’s way to millions could come by frozen pizza — until he finds out the competing company has already released their new double crusted product. Tully lets Claire in on this cure for baldness product, which eventually leads to a round about way of a break-up and reconciliation between Ray and Claire, the stealing of the product’s formula and the possibility of selling that formula to the Swiss for $35 million. But, of course, things never go according to plan.

At the end of “Duplicity,” all of the time-jumping and confusing business and personal relationships begins to unravel. Some parts make sense and there are a few plot holes. Overall, “Duplicity” is entertaining, a little funny and kind of ironic in the sense that those who wish to steal from big corporations rarely get away with it, even though the company tends to do their own form of stealing.

Missy Thompson: missy@tooeletranscript.com