Richard Ayoade’s “The Double” is one of the weirdest movies I’ve ever seen, that’s saying something coming from a Wes Anderson and Taika Waititi fan. This film is artsy, and I don’t say that lightly. The movie is about Simon James (Jesse Eisenberg) finding a doppelganger of himself, this character is James Simon (Jesse Eisenberg). Both of them realize that they have the same face, but only Simon seems to care, and nobody else seems to notice. Slowly, Simon’s entire life is thrown into chaos, James starts taking his life away from him, and it starts driving Simon mad. I loved Richard Ayoade in the IT Crowd, (which, if you haven’t seen it, it’s a brilliant British comedy available on Netflix) I was expecting the same comedy in this. Boy was I wrong, this movie was dark and twisted, and I actually really liked that. The way the film was shot really emphasizes this. All of the characters are the only thing the light touches, other than that, most of the screen is quite dark. This adds to the tension and mystery of the film. The fact that this movie has so many big names baffles me, this seems like such a small project, but at the same time, it really is such a large scale thing. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil” (Yet another thing you should watch in case you haven’t). The movie is quirky and bizarre, yet also really dark and dramatic. Simon’s love for a girl also eventually drives him mad. Really, it’s about a decent into madness in a strangely beautiful way. It was quite odd, because this is one of those movies where you really don’t know where to laugh, which I think is quite appropriate. My biggest complaint would be that sometimes it was hard to tell the difference between Simon and James, which, I know is kind of the point, but this questioning of who’s who (and also wondering how and why there is a doppelganger out of nowhere) often left me distracted from important points in the film. Worst of all, some of these questions are never answered. Another smaller complaint would be how the attempts at comedy can seem forced. But that doesn’t take away from the wonderful suspense that is incredibly prominent throughout the rest of the movie. I really enjoyed this movie, but it did have some major fall backs. Still, it was a great twisted movie to watch if you’re already feeling out of it. 8.2/10 (I know, so specific).
Where can you find “The Double?”: It is free with ads on Youtube and Tubi. Just get an adblock though, it works.
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