the m0vie blog

This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2014.

The Double calls to mind a very old school of BBC television production. In fact, it’s not too difficult to imagine The Double as an artefact from the BBC archives, a piece of eighties low-key dystopian science-fiction existential horror, like a slightly more polished (and colourised) companion piece to their 1954 production of 1984. By translating Dostoyevsky’s story from late nineteenth century Russia to a vision of the future from eighties Britain, writer and director Richard Ayoade has crafted a wonderfully unnerving psychological black comedy.

A large part of The Double feels like it is anchored in post Second World War British anxieties. There are large tower blocks of apartments – people living in boxes piled on top of one another. Grey is the dominant colour. Public transport seems to consist of trains and trams. Suicide rates have climbed so high that there are officers assigned exclusively to cover suicides in each neighbourhood, neighbourhoods separated by strong grey fences.

While large corporations have sprung up in this surreal neverwhere, doing ambiguous and hazily-defined things, technology itself seems little more advanced than type writers or basic DOS. The office copying machine looks (and sounds) like something from Victor Frankenstein’s lab. The company in The Double is headed up by the mysterious “Colonel”, who appears to be a former army officer who has leveraged his fame into corporate success.

At the same time, a few faint Americanisms are creeping into this otherwise dull and grey world. Although the company is run by “the Colonel”, who seems to live inside the “honour lounge”, the middle manager is decidedly American. Advertising his company, the Colonel has adopted a decidedly American approach – filmed in the style of a cheesy late-night infomercial for an ominous conglomerate that seems to do everything and nothing at the same time.

Ayoade acknowledges this retro futurism by juxtaposing the world of The Double with the cheesy science-fiction space operas into which his protagonist seems to escape. The ray-gun low budget techno-colour stylised suck of these epic adventures seems to recall the aesthetic of classic Doctor Who, gleeful and absurd camp with bright colours and questionable special effects. It is amazing what you can do with a roll of tin foil. These gleefully absurd power fantasies, starring Paddy Considine, are a wonderful juxtaposition with the more low key existential horror of this world.

There’s a wonderfully black humour to The Double, aided by a fantastically crafted central performance from Jesse Eisenberg as both Simon James and James Simon. A generic worker drone who has never stood out in seven years of employment, Simon James is startled to discover that the newest employee of his branch is his perfect doppelgänger, James Simon. Even more horrific is that none of Simon’s co-workers even notice the similarity until it’s pointed out to them. When pressed on the identical faces, the best Simon’s co-worker can manage is a somewhat half-hearted, “I suppose so, yeah.”

Eisenberg’s performance is perfectly measured. There’s a wonderful degree of technical craft on display here, and the interactions between the two alternate characters seem delightfully uncomfortable and aware of one another. Eisenberg is pitch perfectly cast in a dual role that requires him to seem put-upon and timid and broken, while also arrogant and assertive and borderline sociopathic. It’s hard to imagine another actor who could fill that role so well.

At the same time, there are points where Eisenberg’s work seems a little too precise, a little too calculated and too mechanical – the breakdown and identity crisis feels a little too clockwork. Still, Eisenberg is fascinating to watch, fits with the general clockwork aesthetic of the movie and has clearly put an incredible amount of work into his craft. He is ably supported by a cast including Mia Wasikowska, Wallace Shawn, James Fox and quite a few other recognisable British actors in effective (and small) roles.

The script, from Richard Ayoade and Avi Korine is balanced quite carefully, trying to weigh the existential tragedy of a man being edged out of his own life against the black comedy of the situation. Ayoade has a fantastic grasp of tone and cinematic timing, ensuring that nothing ever gets too heavy or too light, and that the movie times its sharp shifts for maximum impact. The Double is a fantastically abstract existentialist tragi-comedy, but it remains accessible and engaging for the entirety of its runtime.

The Double is, in some respects, a little too tightly constructed and managed for its own good, suffering from a lack of spontaneity or dynamism in places. On the other hand, it is beautifully crafted, witty and eerily moving. It’s a haunting and effective piece of cinema.

All audience members are asked to rank films in the festival from 1 (worst) to 4 (best). In the interest of full and frank disclosure, here is my score: 3

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: film, jameson dublin international film festival, jdiff, jesse eisenberg, mia wasikowski, Movie, non-review review, review, richard ayoade, the double |