Review of The Devil's Double (2011) by Rob W — 26 Nov 2011

Of the many revealing bits of intel to come out of Iraq since the U.S. set out to remove Saddam Hussein from power, the fact that Hussein often used a body double to avoid capture or assassination yet still remain visible in order to portray himself as an active and fearless leader, was one of the more fascinating nuggets of information. When Saddam's eldest son, Uday, the notorious "Black Prince" of Baghdad, was killed in a U.S.-led raid in 2003, news reports turned their spotlight on him for a brief moment and many of us heard for the first time the tales of a truly sick, sadistic, reckless and spoiled party boy who would torture and kill without mercy, and often without reason. It was also revealed that Uday too used a lookalike.

"The Devil's Double" is the story of Latif Yahia (Dominic Cooper), the Iraqi army lieutenant (who was such a dead-ringer for Uday, that he grew up with people mistake him for Iraq's First Son) who Uday (also Cooper) recruits to be his doppelganger. Despite Uday's promises of all the perks that will come with "being me" - women, riches, power, - Yahia has no desire to risk his life and sever all contact with his family and friends in order to portray a man he feels is certifiably insane. Uday threatens to kill Yahia's family if he does not comply and so begins the episodic look into Yahia's time as Uday.

"The Devil's Double" has a nearly irresistible hook. Anyone who has ever heard the tales of some of Uday's more gruesome crimes knows the guy was a walking nightmare, every bit as sadistic as his notorious father. How a common man - and as the movie presents him, a good man - can possibly become such a person, even as an act, and inhabit a world of violence and murder should be the basis for a fascinating psychological study. The film touches on Yahia's fears and pain, but never explores them. Instead, "The Devil's Double" takes the snapshot approach, focusing most prominently on the more salacious and "action packed events in Yahia's tenure as Uday's double; bouncing from one to the next without pausing to reflect on what any of it means for anyone involved, ultimately trivializing a fascinating true story to the point that feels like any number of generic gangster thrillers. There are a lot of shoot-outs and power struggles, plenty of coke is snorted, lovers and friends betray each other, Sadadam himself realized his son is out of control, etc. It doesn't help that director Lee Tamahori has fashioned this film as if he wants it to be his "Scarface". He is more concerned with making a flashy spectacle than exploring his characters. Clearly he doesn't understand that Uday's story is so unbelievably larger than life as it is, had he just told it without getting in the way of the real life drama, he would have had a lot more without having to work nearly as hard.

"The Devil's Double" is not without its assets; chief among them Cooper's terrific turn as the two leads. The fact that you can almost always tell which Uday is on the screen despite them looking the same is a testament to the fact that Cooper has created two fleshed out, individual characters. Unfortunately, the shallow film surrounding him undermines his performance. If you just want some gangster action, you can certainly do worse than "The Devil's Double". The real life angle and body double concept, if nothing else, give it a leg up over the average generic action flick. But why anyone would take such a spectacular true story and render it so completely derivative is beyond me.