"The Double" Is An Exceptional Film - Gorgeous, Intense And Hilarious

The Double (2014)

This is the second film to be directed by Richard Ayodade, who is probably most well known for his role as Morris Moss the hilarious geek from "The IT Crowd". His first film "Submarine" was a somewhat darkly comic coming-of-age film. As a follow-up "The Double" is also darkly comic, but with rather higher aspirations since it is based on Dostoyevsky's novel (of the same name).



"The Double" is the sort of comedy where a character works in a boring job, lives in a cramped flat, and where a large number of people are committing suicide. This is not a laugh-a-minute kind of comedy, but at sometimes the surrealism of the film is very funny and on occasion there really are lines that are hysterical. Like with the Coen Brothers' "A Serious Man", the majority of the jokes are at the protagonist's expense, so there's the same balance between empathy for the protagonist and hilarity at his misfortunes. All the while with a sinister setting in the background.



Right from the start, "The Double" is beautiful. In the very first scene we see the light dancing around as Jesse Eisenberg is sitting on a train. The lighting effect makes this grimy and plain setting look absolutely beautiful and the film looks similarly bland or grimy and yet beautiful all the way through the film.


( Click here to read the rest of my review of "The Double"... )