Jackson Booth-Millard
Actor and comedian Richard Ayoade, best known for The Crystal Maze, made a successful directorial debut with quirky coming-of-age comedy drama Submarine, I was looking forward to seeing if he could deliver with this much darker thriller style film, based on the novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Basically Simon James (Jesse Eisenberg) is a downtrodden young man who has worked the same cubicle desk job for seven years, but he is ignored by his boss and colleagues. From his apartment, he often spies into the window of his beautiful neighbour and co-worker Hannah (Mia Wasikowska), who he admires, through he telescope, he sees her throwing away pieces of art, and takes it for himself. One night, Simon sees a man jump to his death from the floor above Hannah's apartment, he talks to the police investigating, they say that if the man had jumped a few feet to the right, he would have escaped death with only injuries. Simon's boss Mr. Papadopoulos (Wallace Shawn) announces the arrival of a new employee, James Simon (also Eisenberg), he looks completely identical to Simon, which causes Simon himself to faint, but James is assertive and charming, and quickly gains respect from his co-workers, who do not seem to notice him being identical to Simon, much to his annoyance. James on the other hand does notice this, he takes pity on Simon and decides to help him seduce Hannah, she asks James out on a date, through Simon. On the date, Simon pretends to be James, with the real James giving him instructions through an earpiece, but Simon becomes nervous, so they swap places, James gets a kiss from Hannah, angering Simon, he next takes James's place to to take an aptitude test, and he seduces the boss's rebellious daughter, Melanie (Yasmin Paige). Simon gets his revenge on James, revealing to Hannah that James is cheating on her with Melanie, but James blackmails Simon with explicit photos he took of himself with Melanie, knowing the boss will believe it is Simon. At work, Simon accuses James of being an impostor, he is fired after going on a maniacal tirade, he considers committing suicide, but stops himself seeing Hannah is unconscious in her apartment, it is at hospital that it is revealed she has overdosed, and miscarried (she was pregnant following her sexual encounter with James). Simon is relieved that Hannah survives and takes her home, but she is still angry at him, she wanted to die, and suggests he kill himself, she then goes through his pockets, discovering earrings he has bought for her, and her salvaged art. Simon learns his mother (Phyllis Somerville) has died, he is angry when he sees James attending her funeral, Simon punches him and discovers that they share injuries; as James's nose bleeds, so does Simon's. He finds Hannah and tells her he wants to be noticed, Simon goes to his apartment and handcuffs sleeping Simon to his bed, then goes to the ledge above Hannah's apartment, steps to the right, and jumps, he is badly hurt. Hannah runs to Simon and an ambulance arrives, while the handcuffed James, lacking medical attention, appears to be on the brink of death on the apartment floor, he lies motionless, inside the ambulance The Colonel (James Fox) and Hannah watch over Simon, the Colonel says Simon is "special", to which he responds "I'd like to think I'm pretty unique". Also starring Noah Taylor as Harris, Cathy Moriarty as Kiki, Craig Roberts as Young Detective, Chris O'Dowd as Nurse, Chris Morris as Workers' Services Executive, Sally Hawkins as Receptionist at Ball and Paddy Considine as 'The Replicator'. Eisenberg is splendid playing both the naive unappreciated worker opposite himself as the arrogant and sexually confident double, it enters similar territory to the film Brazil, a moody movie with a fantasy element, there are only small giggly moments, it mostly feels claustrophobic, filled with paranoia, and arresting visuals, a fairly disturbing but equally interesting psychological drama. Good!
robert-temple-1
This is one of those dystopian films which looks like the action took place at the bottom of a fish tank covered in algae. Yellow and green filters, or their electronic equivalents, create a suitable gloom. We expect tropical fish to swim by, but instead humans emerge. And they are strange humans. Jesse Eisenberg is very good at playing a gormless young man of excessive timidity. I did not get as far as seeing Eisenberg play the physical double of his initial character, because this film was just not interesting, so I turned it off. If only one could turn off some real life events in, say, Syria! All these gloomy, dark, and menacing sci fi films that keep being made are too much like the afterlives of bad people. Why should we have to watch such dribble? If I want to see this kind of thing, I can visit a darkened aquarium. The director, Richard Ayoade, should do the decent thing, as the English gentlemen of yesteryear used to call it, when there was no other way out. Or otherwise he should just stick to acting. OK, so the film is based on a novella by Dostoevsky. I am not impressed. This reminds me of how the uneducated moron who used to run the MGM office in London long ago, when challenged by a screenwriter, pronounced the author's name 'Dusty-evksy' because he did not know who he was. I would call this film 'Dusky-evsky' because of the enveloping twilight. And as for James Fox playing 'the Colonel', really, doesn't he have anything better to do with his time? Yawn, yawn. Can we please have more films made on the surface of the earth rather than beneath it, and which give us something life-enhancing instead terminally depressing?
jpolson-39897
The Double A film review by: Jamie PolsonSimon James is the main character in the movie "The Double. It takes place at an unknown point in time. Simon James works for a company that deals with data living an average sort of life when a new employee joins the team, and his life goes on an emotional roller coaster. The new employee is named James Simon and has an uncanny resemblance to Simon James. This movie uses a lot of thematic elements in it to convey the story. Different character's facial expressions indicate what that character is thinking. For instance the actor who played Simon James was the same actor that played James Simon, so, to show that he was one or the other, he would have different expressions for that character. Simon always looked sad in the eyes, and James always looked proud of himself or not caring at all. One of the other important thematic items was the soundtrack or music. For example, whenever Simon would be walking somewhere, string instruments would play intense music. Whenever Simon realized something for the first time there would be an oboe in the background. The dialogue is unique and funny in this movie. All of the characters say things that you typically would not hear in real life. If you did, it certainly would make you do a double take. For example, Simon is talking on the phone with his mom and we hear him say, "Yes, I know I'm a disappointment." One of the last thematic elements is that the actors told the story partially through their body language and mannerisms; the characters' personalities are shown through how they hold themselves or act. Simon has a mannerism where wherever he is walking (no matter what he is feeling) he always walks with his arms by his side. He doesn't swing them like most people. Hannah, whenever we see her walking, is clutching her purse close to her chest. Harris (who does not appear much) always seems to be relaxing or not doing his fair share. When we do see him on screen, he is either putting his feet on his desk or asking Simon to do his work for him. I thought the lighting was very interesting. In a lot of the scenes, the lighting was dark so there was quite a lot that you could not see. Also, they made the choice to have all the scenes be shot at night. There were literally no scenes during the day. Another technique was that most of the scenes have this orangey feel, so although the scenes happened at night, they felt kind of warm. It also made it kind of creepy. It made me feel uneasy like something was going to jump out of the shadows at any time. The camera angles were a major part of the movie. I am specifically referring to shots that were moving, like running scenes. The scene where Simon is running from his mother's funeral was a long distance angle. The camera was not on a tripod and was very shaky. It felt like I was running with him. The story structure is a very linear structure. It starts out at the beginning, or what they show us is the beginning, and then it just keeps going with the story as it happens. There were no flashbacks, which I thought was an interesting choice. I liked this movie. I thought it was planned out well and it made me think quite a bit about what was happening. I thought the character development was also very good because it really got you to connect with the protagonist at every part. Bad stuff kept happening to him and I felt really sorry for him. I thought it was an interesting choice to show the type of world that they were in. It seems to me that this movie may have been a prediction of what people from the 1950's or so thought the future was going to be. The topic is very interesting. I can see how this movie could easily be based on a true story. To me it was about how the protagonist knows what kind of person he wants to be, but knows that he will never be able to achieve that goal. It also shows the struggles that he faces to try and achieve that goal This movie really made me think, which is the sign of a great movie.
