Review of The Double (2014) by Thomas W — 13 Sep 2014
Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) plays Simon in this little art house gem of a film from writer/director Richard Ayoade (Submarine). Simon is an office worker drone working for a government agency who finds himself working in a room full of cubicles where he types numbers and figures into a calculating device from 9 to 5 like clockwork.
In this bizarrely skewed alternate reality (which is actually a lot of fun), Simon's boring existence is turned upside with the arrival of new co-worker James (Jesse Eisenberg - The Double). James is EVERYTHING Simon is not.
He is outspoken and outgoing and rebellious he's got the confidence to talk to the ladies ... namely the one who works downstairs in the photocopy room (Mia Wasikowska - Jane Eyre) on whom Simon has a crush! Simon has to watch from the sidelines as his life changes and he can do practically nothing about it as he is barely noticed by anybody else.
As for James, everybody wants to be his bestest bud (except for Simon). The strange little world Ayoade has created is fun and the film is wickedly smart as its source material is a Fyodor Dostoevsky novella.
There is a bit of slight satire here as our existence has been turned into a bleak, beige existence of drones who apparently cannot think for themselves. I expected little from this so perhaps that is why I was so surprised by it.
It is creepy, paranoid fun.
This review of The Double (2014) was written by Thomas W on 13 Sep 2014.
The Double has generally received positive reviews.
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