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THE DOUBLE Send This Review to a Friend
Based on Dostoevsky’s 1846 novella, “The Double” is well-directed by Richard Ayoade and properly bizarre, but it can get on one’s nerves, and maybe that’s the point.
Jesse Eisenberg stars as Simon, a worker for a strange futuristic firm. He is on the sheepish side, but a dead ringer for him turns up and is a charmer who step by step assumes Simon’s identity.
Of course, Eisenberg plays both parts and does them effectively. One can view the film as a story of a split personality, an angle that builds to disastrous effect. If you look at Simon and his double as one, with psychological disturbances tearing the character apart, the story makes sense.
“The Double” is superbly done, but however you look at it, the experience of watching it is generally bleak. The cast includes Mia Wasikowska and Sally Hawkins, with Wallace Shawn as the boss, who favors the more appealing Simon. A Magnolia Pictures release. Reviewed April 9. 2014.
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