Netflix Movie Review: The Double
By Alec Davis
The Double (2013)
Director: Richard Ayoade
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Mia Wasikowska, Wallace Shawn, Noah Taylor, Yasmin Paige
This week I’ll be taking a look at Richard Ayoade’s The Double. You may know Ayoade from his very funny role as Maurice Moss on The IT Crowd, but he’s gotten into the directing game in the last couple years. The Double is his second film, the first being Submarine, a movie which frankly could not be more different from this one (I highly recommend watching it if you haven’t. It’s phenomenal.). Submarine is a quirky, almost Wes Anderson-y black comedy/coming of age story, while The Double is… not that.
The Double is a psychological thriller about an unassuming and timid office drone named Simon James (Jesse Eisenberg). He’s an awkward and unnoticeable guy whose whole existence seems to consist of going to work, visiting his mom, and sitting in his apartment. He has a crush on Hannah (Mia Wasikowska), a girl who works in his office, but he can’t bring himself to actually talk to her so he just watches her apartment from his window with a telescope. One day while he’s at work a man who looks exactly like him, named James Simon (also Jesse Eisenberg), is hired in his office. James is everything Simon is not: he’s confident, popular, charismatic, and good with women. The two start a budding friendship over the fact that they are identical (which strangely nobody else seems to notice), but soon the relationship turns sour and they become enemies, which leads to all sorts of intense drama.
I really respect any actors who can play against themselves really well, and this movie proves that Jesse Eisenberg is one of those actors. He convincingly manages to play two characters who are total opposites in every way, and his performances are one of the best parts of the movie; and it’s a damn good movie. That said it does have some pretty big weaknesses. The plot really takes a backseat to the concept and the style, both of which are really solid, but the plot suffers as a result. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense, and it takes a while to realize that the movie isn’t going to answer some of the more glaring questions you’ll inevitably have as a viewer, which frankly gets a bit distracting. But while it’s confusing, I don’t know that it’s really a bad confusing. I just think it really demands a second viewing.
Apparently The Double is based on a story by Fyodor Dostoevsky, which I haven’t read, but knowing how bizarre Russian literature can be I’m not terribly surprised by any of the weirdness. On top of that, there’s definitely a major theme that I noticed of mental illness throughout the movie. It tackles suicide, not feeling like a real person, and anxiety among other, less explicitly stated issues. It tries to show just how awful mental illness can be, and it succeeds brilliantly. The cinematography, the visual strangenss, and the way James and Simon interact really bring this to light subtly but effectively. It may not be saying anything new about mental illness, but it handles it spectacularly well.
The Double definitely has its problems, but they’re minimal when you compare them to everything it does right, and it manages to be a really great movie and a fantastic sophomore piece for Richard Ayoade.
Since not everyone can afford to go to the theater to see a new movie every weekend, I’ll be here every week to tell you about a movie you can find on Netflix instead. Because we can all use some good movies in our lives.
Since not everyone can afford to go to the theater to see a new movie every weekend, I’ll be here every week to tell you about a movie you can find on Netflix instead. Because we can all use some good movies in our lives.
