I approached The Double with some trepidation. It was the latest in a series of quirky art house movies released in the last month or so and the bad (Under the Skin, Only Lovers Left Alive and Her) were outweighing the good (Grand Budapest Hotel). Additionally, it was directed by Richard Ayoade whose previous film Submarine seemed to be loved by everyone except me…
During the opening scenes, establishing the strange stylised world inhabited by the participants, I thought my worst fears were going to be realised. Whilst David Crank’s production design and Barbara Herman-Skelding’s set decoration were hugely impressive – creating a nightmarish timeless sense of place – I was concerned that this would truly be a case of style over substance: most closely resembling David Lynch’s Eraserhead which I struggled to sit through.
But the story of Simon, played by Jesse Eisenberg, and his day-to-day existence in this peculiar technologically backwards but dependant world slowly pulled me in. The drudgery of his mundane job, where his boss doesn’t know his name although he has worked there for 7 years, is brilliantly realised.
It captured life in a big corporation as well as any film since Mike Judge’s Office Space. By the time Simon’s physical double (James, also played by Eisenberg) appeared I was hooked. James may look the same, but in contrast to the timid and hesitant Simon, he is self-confident and outgoing. Initially he seemed to be taking Simon under his wing, but soon, Simon’s life starts to fall apart.
The story moves on a more and more unpredictable path. Are James and Simon really doppelgängers or is Simon suffering from a form of schizophrenia? Might there be another explanation? As the film careers through a gripping last 10 minutes, none of those questions are answered, but the ambiguous ending was much more satisfying than it would have been had all of the loose ends been neatly tied up.
Eisenberg is perfectly cast in the dual role, deftly portraying both James and Simon. Wallace Shawn is always a delight and he has the most of funniest scenes as the office boss. The one exception being Simon’s all too brief encounter with the great Chris Morris.
But the revelation of this film is Mia Wasikowska as Hannah, the girl who Simon is in love with and James seduces. She has made little impression on me before, but here she is totally believable as a girl that is both weird enough to exist in the film but also desirable enough for both men to be interested in her.
Rating: 7 out of 10