Review of The Devil's Double (2011) by Austenkarl — 08 Aug 2011

Cinema Gold! Just look at the poster!

The Devil's Double starring Dominic Cooper in a Bravura performance, playing both leads, he is astounding. Never for a moment do you think he is the same person, prosthetics and camera work aside heCinema Gold! Just look at the poster!

The Devil's Double starring Dominic Cooper in a Bravura performance, playing both leads, he is astounding.

Never for a moment do you think he is the same person, prosthetics and camera work aside he draws two very distinctive character's and then a third as he portrays the double imitating the Devil! Incredible!

In case you have been holed up somewhere and know nothing of the story behind the movie, here goes. Latif Yahia (Cooper) is an Iraqi army officer taken from the front line during the Iran-Iraq war, he is brought to one of the palaces in Baghdad to meet an old schoolmate Uday Hussein (also Cooper) son of the president Saddam Hussein. In those times of war and uprising Uday needs a 'fidai' or bullet catcher, someone who he can send in when there is a threat to his safety or if he just doesn't feel like doing it himself. .

Uday offers Latif the job, but Latif declines politely and I won't spoil the rest.

Based on the true story of Latif Yahia and his best selling book of the same name,the Devil's Double sticks pretty much with the book apart from some scenes where Lee Tamahori the director took some poetic license. Don't expect it to be hugely political, it's not. Don't expect it to be historically accurate either, it's kinda there but the producers and director have said that they purposely didn't go down that road because they didn't want historians nit picking. Maybe they should have because from other reviews I have seen they're nit picking anyway!

The Devil's Double is a great action packed thriller of a movie with fantastic performances from not one but two actors playing 'Doubles' Philip Quast (Saddam Hussein) also plays Saddam's Double Faoz Al-Emiri ( I think I got that right) and although you don't see too much of him you know instantly who he is when he's onscreen!

I liked it, a lot actually and I will be seeing it again and probably again, for all the controversy that has been kicked up I think it's going to be one of those movies that has lasting power and gains more and more credit as time goes on. Remember 'Scarface' wasn't such a big hit when it came out first, it was only over time that it garnered the Iconic status that it has now.