“I am a person”, says recluse Simon James, “I exist”. This simple sentence drives much of The Double, the new film from Richard Ayoade, famous for his role as Moss in British comedy series The IT Crowd. Ayoade has recently moved into the director’s chair, with feature debut Submarine and now 2013’s The Double, a black comedy based on Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novella about a young worker whose life is taken over by a mysterious doppelganger.
Simon James (Jesse Eisenberg) lives in a bleak, dystopian world and works for a governmental department. Simon lives quite a structured and boring existence and is enamoured by copy girl Hannah (Mia Wasikowska), but Simon struggles to talk to her, let alone confess his feelings to her. One day, Simon is shocked to see that his new co-worker, James Simon (also Eisenberg) is his exact double, except that James is charming, outgoing and good with the ladies. Soon James is taking over Simon’s life: he steals Hannah from Simon, makes Simon do all of his work for him, and blackmails him into letting him stay in Simon’s apartment for free. Gradually, Simon feels like he is more invisible than ever, but it is then that Hannah begins to see him.
Typically of Ayoade’s other work, The Double is very much a black comedy. Its humour is very subtle, and very obscure. If you’re a fan of films like I Heart Huckabees and pretty much anything by Terry Gilliam, then this film will delight you; if you are not, it may bore you. Luckily for me, I generally fall into the first category, and so I liked this strange little film. Eisenberg does a great job, but he only really gets to flex his muscles when James comes into the picture. Eisenberg is one of the most underrated actors currently working and watching this made me intrigued to see what he does with the role of Lex Luthor in the upcoming Batman/Superman film. He has great chemistry with Wasikowska, who does well with what she’s given. Noah Taylor, Wallace Shawn and Chris O’Dowd co-star and each one injects some life and some laughs into a film that sometimes runs the risk of buckling underneath its heavy existential subject matter.
The Double does suffer due to its incredibly slow pacing, particularly at the beginning of the film, and with quite a bit that’s unexplained (Why do people have doppelgangers? Why do they have a physical connection? Are they even real? Who is the mysterious Colonel, who decides to pop up late in the game?), so the ending is not as satisfying as it should have been. Despite this, The Double is full of great performances and is charming and intriguing enough to warrant a viewing.
Film Review: THREE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Running Time: 93 minutes
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