The Double

For his directorial debut Richard Ayoade adapted Joe Dunthorne’s Submarine with critical success. For his follow up feature he’s also turned to a literary source, that of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Double. Dostoyevsky’s work splits people who read it and there’s no real agreed analysis as to what the final interpretation should be. Though Ayoade’s film doesn’t actually stick all that closely to it’s source material, I think the diagnosis will be the same i.e. enjoyably confusing, but somewhat ruined by its ambiguity. Due to the success of Submarine, Ayoade has a stronger cast to play with here with Jesse Eisenberg and Mia Wasikowska taking the lead roles. Well, I say “leads”, but it’s Eisenberg who does most of the heavy lifting. We follow Simon James (Eisenberg), a sad sack employee in a nameless and soulless organisation, who’s duty of going to visit his frail mother and from-a-distance yearning for his colleague Hannah (Wasikowska) the only things lifting him out of his drones existence. Soon enough though things take a turn for the bizarre when a doppelganger of James (called James Simon – also played by Eisenberg) shows up at his place of work and becomes everything James is not, i.e. a hit with colleagues and, much to James’ chagrin, Hannah. Where it goes from there would be too spoiler-rific, but this is one of those classic productions where the good and minus points pretty much even themselves out and you’re left with something that is good as opposed to great. Eisenberg clearly has fun playing both parts and there are amusing cameos from a number of people, not least Sally Hawkins in a blink and miss it role at a party and (rejoice!) the lesser spotted Chris Morris as a member of personnel with a Catch 22 approach to giving someone a new ID card. Script wise things don’t really click mind (the constant references to the red tape and bureaucracy that hold James back wear thin), not helped by James being so wet you just think he deserves all he gets when Simon start to exploit him. Things are better on the aesthetics side of things and James’ place of work is nicely realised with a set design that is a bland and dreary Kafka-esque nightmare, though some may find it a rip off of Brazil. Ayoade is already known as being somewhat of a cineaste when it comes to being behind the camera and he does some nice work here, including a great Hitchcockian moment when James, whilst spying on Hannah through a telescope, spots a man on a ledge who waves at him and then promptly jumps off. Overall: Enjoyable, but a backwards step for Ayoade from Submarine. Rating: 6/10.