Fails the Bechdel test
Duplicity
2009. Directed by Tony Gilroy, written by Tony Gilroy.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
1 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
11 women characters. 6 of them speak. -
No
2. Who talk to each other
Our parser found no scene where two women talk to each other. -
No
3. About something besides a man
Not reached: the film fails an earlier rule.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 2 out of 3.
The film
Ray works for MI6, Claire for the CIA. She burns him in Dubai. Jump ahead five years: he sees her in Grand Central and confronts her. Both now work in industrial security for corporate giants whose CEOs hate each other. Flashbacks fill us in: is it coincidence that he sees her in Grand Central? In about a week, one of the firms is going to announce a revolutionary product. Under the guise of helping that corporation's rival, can Ray and Claire work their own theft and find an independent buyer? To work together, using the corporate rivalry to their advantage, they would have to trust one another - difficult, if not impossible. Or, is one playing the other?
- Released
- 20 Mar 2009
- Genres
- Comedy, Crime, Romance
- Rated
- PG-13
- IMDb
- 6.1 / 10
- Metascore
- 69 / 100
- Awards
- 1 win & 4 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Ray 337 lines, man
- Claire 275 lines, woman
- Duke 63 lines, man
- Garsik 47 lines, man
- Guston 34 lines, man
- Bauer 29 lines, man
- Dale 26 lines, man
- Barbara 19 lines, woman
- Pam 15 lines, woman
- Fetyov 13 lines, man
Full cast, 36 people
- Julia Roberts as Claire Stenwick
- Clive Owen as Ray Koval
- Tom Wilkinson as Howard Tully
- Paul Giamatti as Richard Garsik
- Tom McCarthy as Jeff Bauer
- Denis O'Hare as Duke Monahan
- Kathleen Chalfant as Pam Frailes
- Wayne Duvall as Ned Guston
- Carrie Preston as Barbara Bofferd
- Oleg Stefan as Boris Fetyov
- Rick Worthy as Dale Raimes
- Khan Baykal as Dinesh Patel
- Ulrich Thomsen as Big Swiss Suit
- Christopher Denham as Ronny Partiz
- Dan Daily as Garsik's Aid
- Lisa Roberts Gillan as Tully's Assistant
- David Shumbris as Turtleneck
- Fabrizio Brienza as Hotel Manager
- Lucia Grillo as Italian Chambermaid
- Conan McCarty as Bartender
- Kirby Mitchell as Realtor
- Christopher Mann as Mr. Security
- Seth Kirschner as Counter Sloth
- Karl Bury as Physec
- Happy Anderson as Physec
- James Cronin as San Diego Equikrom
- Esther Pringle as San Diego Equikrom
- Mary Anne Prevost as San Diego Equikrom
- Annabel Seymour as Tully's Makeup Girl
- Sandy Hamilton as Swiss Chemist
- Helen Elswit as Swiss Female Executive
- Samantha Stark as B & R Employee
- Brandon Slagle as Garsik's Shareholder (uncredited)
- Michele Melega as Swiss Chemist (uncredited)
- Noel Elie as Business Woman (uncredited)
- Leonard Zimmerman as Upscale Shopper (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 2% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 159
Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.
Show the numbers
| Scenes | Women's lines | Men's lines |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | 0 | 23 |
| 5 to 8 | 0 | 10 |
| 9 to 12 | 25 | 29 |
| 13 to 16 | 0 | 0 |
| 17 to 20 | 8 | 12 |
| 21 to 24 | 0 | 7 |
| 25 to 28 | 3 | 30 |
| 29 to 32 | 2 | 7 |
| 33 to 36 | 0 | 0 |
| 37 to 40 | 0 | 0 |
| 41 to 44 | 14 | 14 |
| 45 to 48 | 54 | 52 |
| 49 to 52 | 3 | 23 |
| 53 to 56 | 29 | 24 |
| 57 to 60 | 0 | 5 |
| 61 to 64 | 0 | 14 |
| 65 to 68 | 0 | 15 |
| 69 to 72 | 0 | 0 |
| 73 to 76 | 2 | 15 |
| 77 to 80 | 26 | 27 |
| 81 to 84 | 1 | 5 |
| 85 to 88 | 13 | 68 |
| 89 to 92 | 21 | 20 |
| 93 to 96 | 0 | 1 |
| 97 to 100 | 35 | 45 |
| 101 to 104 | 1 | 11 |
| 105 to 108 | 3 | 8 |
| 109 to 112 | 1 | 4 |
| 113 to 116 | 3 | 3 |
| 117 to 120 | 0 | 3 |
| 121 to 124 | 2 | 4 |
| 125 to 128 | 0 | 2 |
| 129 to 132 | 1 | 5 |
| 133 to 136 | 4 | 10 |
| 137 to 140 | 16 | 30 |
| 141 to 144 | 13 | 12 |
| 145 to 148 | 0 | 0 |
| 149 to 152 | 0 | 3 |
| 153 to 156 | 0 | 8 |
| 157 to 159 | 33 | 48 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 34 are women's.
313 lines from women, 597 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
11 women and 23 men in the cast. 6 women and 14 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 35 of 925.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 52 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 31% of the words (3,203), men 69% (7,227). Women have 34% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit D: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
0
Two men
33
Exhibit E: behind the camera
4 of the 10 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 23% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Tony Gilroy (man)
- Written by
- Tony Gilroy (man)
- Produced by
- Jennifer Fox (woman), Laura Bickford (woman), Kerry Orent (woman)
- Shot by
- Robert Elswit (man)
- Edited by
- John Gilroy (man)
- Music by
- James Newton Howard (man)
- Production design by
- Kevin Thompson (man)
- Cast by
- Ellen Chenoweth (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
2 women, 10 men, 1 not listed
-
Other crew
3 women, 7 men, 1 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 6 men, 3 not listed
-
Production
4 women, 4 men, 1 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
2 women, 1 men, 5 not listed
-
Visual Effects
0 women, 2 men, 3 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 4 men
-
Directing
1 women, 3 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 49 on average. Men: 48 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Julia Roberts 41, Carrie Preston 41, Kathleen Chalfant 64
Men
Paul Giamatti 41, Tom McCarthy 42, Clive Owen 44, Denis O'Hare 47, Oleg Stefan 49, Wayne Duvall 50, Tom Wilkinson 61
Exhibit G: the money
It made 1.3 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $60 million
- Box office
- $78.2 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 159 scenes and 925 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
