Review: The Double

Released: 4^th April 2014

Certificate: 15

Director: Richard Ayoade

Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Mia Wasikowska, Wallace Shawn

Richard Ayoade delivers a complex and engaging adaptation loosely based upon Dostoyevsky’s 1846 novel. Transporting the 19^th century Russian setting to a dank, soviet-esque dystopia casts the piece adrift from contemporary or historical reference points, setting the focus squarely on protagonist Simon James (Jesse Eisenberg), and effectively communicating to the audience a sense of his alienation. Simon James is a low-level but capable bureaucrat who struggles to distinguish himself due to the fact that no-one can ever quite remember who he is. When a new employee, James Simon (also played by Eisenberg) arrives, Simon James’ life begins to unravel.

The film may be adapted from Dostoyevsky, but the screenplay owes more to Kafka or Pinter than anything else. Everyone talks constantly at crossed purposes, and the world is not interested in allowing Simon James to get over his nerves long enough to blurt out an explanation or a protest. The cast deliver the dialogue with precision, with Eisenberg mastering both Simon James’ muttered protests and James Simon’s rapid-fire proclamations, and showing admirable flexibility and range. Delicious cameos from Craig Roberts, Sally Hawkins and Chris Morris provide moments of genuine levity, while the interactions between Eisenberg’s Simon James and the world around him walk a queasy line: you may find yourself giggling even as you grimace in frustration.

The film heavily features themes of suicide: Simon James witnesses a man jump to his death in the opening act, and self-harm, self-hatred and helplessness are spectres which frequently appear to haunt the characters. Dealing with such themes in a film which is ostensibly a comedy is tricky to pull off without being churlish, and fortunately the more serious elements are handled skilfully and sensitively. However, the gloom does at times become a little oppressive.

The Double is drenched in symbolism: blood, colour, and a ubiquitous eighties sci-fi parody TV show transect the narrative, serving, stifling and reflecting the events in turn. The setting oozes mystery at every turn: the exact nature of the company and the Colonel (James Fox) is tantalisingly ambiguous, and as Simon James’ mental health appears to crumble the viewer is left wondering whether they’re suffering at the hands of an unreliable narrator. The film never talks down to its audience, and even if you understand the mechanics of the head-scratching conclusion, you’ll be left wondering if really it meant something else.

Despite the speculative setting, The Double explores themes with perpetual relevance: loneliness, isolation, identity ad artifice, and questions the sense of a world in which one’s actual abilities matter less than self-promotion and ‘style.’ Some may struggle with the absurdist trappings but persistence is richly rewarded.

Verdict: 4.5/5