MOVIE REVIEW: THE DOUBLE,
When Simon James speaks, nobody hears him. He is like a ghost, invisible to the world. He does not exist. He has a job, but it’s unimportant. He has a mother, but she is ailing and dying. He has an apartment, but it is bare and lifeless. When he goes out to a restaurant he does not know what to order and he ends up drinking only a glass of water. The only thing that gives Simon James life is Hannah, a girl that works where he works and lives in an apartment across the courtyard from his apartment. Simon watches Hannah through a telescope. He thinks of talking to her, of saying profound and lovely things to her, but he can hardly say “hello”. She notices him and is not bothered by him, but she is not “swept up” by him either. He is just some guy. She cannot even remember his name.
Then comes James Simon, the doppelganger of Simon James. He looks just like him, but he is charismatic and confident. He can say those profound and lovely things to Hannah that she wants to hear. He can win over his boss at work and receive a promotion to Senior Executive. James is everything that Simon is not.
Magnolia Pictures’s The Double, starring Jesse Eisenberg and Mia Wasikowska, is a love story, but its “hook” is that of a dual identity thriller. The story is based from a novelette of the same title, written in 1846 by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The film adaptation feels like a story from classical literature. We are not only shown the circumstances and repercussions of having an exact look-alike and opposite, but we, as audience members, are given the opportunity to dive into the tortured mind of a person that lacks existence. This is a metaphorical tale, as well as an entertaining one. It’s quirkiness of a dystopian world and the ridiculousness of the people that inhabit it reminds me of the early films by Terry Gilliam. The fantastical surrealism of the film reminds me of Federico Fellini films. And the crude, jump-cut pacing of The Double reminds me of a British experimental film called, Performance, which happens to star James Fox (who makes a cameo appearance in The Double). Such wonderful and enlivening influences for director Richard Ayoade. But if I compare the skill of Ayoade as a director to that of Gilliam, Fellini, and Nicolas Roeg (the director of Performance): not even in the same ballpark. Ayoade has tremendous vision and creativity, but he does not have the exacting, surgical skill as a director that the aforementioned auteurs possess. Ayoade’s crudeness as a filmmaker is not an aesthetic. It is Ayoade still learning, and making mistakes along the way.
I can tell that Jesse Eissenberg is an intelligent man, even an intellectual. He has a face that is full of inner thoughts and unexpressed emotion, making him perfect for the timid character of Simon James. But does he possess the outwardly and lively characteristics of the obnoxious James Simon…? I think Eissenberg played the character of James too subdued. In a film that is full of ridiculous characters and awkward scenarios why not explode on the screen with a character that is over-the-top…? Why take the subtle approach, more akin to Jeremy Irons’ portrayal of twin brothers in Dead Ringers, and only give us subtle hints and clues at the twisted secret behind Simon’s dual identity?
The Double is unique and original to a generation that is unfamiliar with European, New Wave art films of the 1950’s, 60’s, and 70’s, but it needed to strive for more. Even in the uncategorized category of “dual-identity films” it did not break new ground. It’s ending was so similar to the ending of countless other identity films that it had me groan at its unoriginality. The film’s first half builds with such wonderful and entertaining moments, but the story and humor ultimately grows tiresome, and gradually falls into obscurity.
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