It's that time again. The time when Hollywood desperately walks into its nearest library searching for treasure troves to loot. This time the bounty is Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Double. To be frank, I never read it but something tells me I would have had a better time reading about an introvert suffering a mental breakdown instead of watching one on-screen. Books allow us to open our imagination and create limitless worlds filled with the tiniest details with ease. The Double (2013) is charged with the same task but must overcome a tremendous amount of effort and trickery to achieve the same end.
--Spoilers past this point--
Case in point:
Meet Simon James (Jesse Eisenberg). Simon has a daily routine: he takes the subway to work; he carries a briefcase which holds his identification badge; he checks in with a salty security guard before taking an elevator to his work floor; he sits at his cubicle and efficiently completes his daily tasks (mostly computer work) before heading home and repeating the same routine each proceeding day. He regularly interrupts this routine with daydreams of a young female co-worker, a copyist (irony not missed) named Hannah (Mia Wasikowska), who he wishes to talk to and hopefully start a relationship with but can't quite work up enough nerve even to utter "Hey."
Meet James Simon (Jesse Eisenberg). James does not have a daily routine: we're unsure if he takes a subway to work, he just mysteriously appears; he doesn't carry a briefcase but it's not needed because he's good buddies with the security guard; he never sits at a desk, always a buzzing bee slapping co-workers on the shoulder and causing riotous laughs from groups huddled around him; he never does any work, in fact he doesn't even know what they do at this corporation but that doesn't stop him from taking credit for Simon's work; and, yes, it should come as no surprise that he has a way with the ladies and Hannah is in to him.
It doesn't take a Russian novelist to notice that these two are mirror opposites of each other. In fact, they are not even two people but one person who is trying to reconcile his loneliness, isolation, and desperation for recognition through manifesting a split personality that he, and others, treat as a separate physical entity. Hannah (notice the palindrome) serves as the catalyst driving Simon/James to a very destructive, yet meaningful, end.
The symbolism abounds in this film and leaves audiences with a concussion after clubbing us in the head multiple times with cheap imagery and color cues, repetitive routines (yes, that was on purpose), and stilted dialogue that feels like it could have been lifted (or copied) from the original text. Not to say that any of that is bad in the grand scheme of things but sometimes what's good for the page doesn't necessarily translate well to the screen.
The technical aspects of the film were on point. The picture is drenched in a gorgeous greyish yellow and the soundtrack has a nice change of pace with some old Japanese cuts. Eisenberg plays well off himself and can rival Orphan Black's Tatiana Maslany by successfully portraying characters who look identical yet have extremely colorful and distinctive personality traits. Mia didn't have much of an arc to play with but then again it's not her character's movie.
Having recently seen Enemy (2013) and having been a long time fan of Fight Club (1999), I'm suffering from a fatigue of sorts by watching these schizophrenic protagonists go to war with themselves. It's time for me to take a break and crack open a book. "No, it's not." Yes, it is...wait...who's there?
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