Guest Review: The Double (2014)

By Jonas Schwartz

Richard Ayoade’s comic thriller The Double is decidedly odd and strangely compelling. The plot (and meaning) are quizzical and the average brain (which I must have) will have a hard time fitting all the pieces together, but for those with patience and an admiration for ambitious projects, this film may be worth a look.

Simon James (Jesse Eisenberg) is practically invisible. He has worked as a clerk for the same company for seven years and yet the security guard never recognizes him and treats him like a trespasser. He works endlessly and always presents solid ideas to his befuddled supervisor (Wallace Shawn) and yet he’s constantly told he’s a detriment to the company. Simon arrives at a mandatory company party and is escorted out like a criminal. Already a human insect, his life disintegrates further when an exact duplicate named James Simon (also Eisenberg) joins the agency.

Despite the same bad haircut and slovenly-tailored suit, James exudes confidence, while Simon lacks any sense of self. Simon’s supervisor, colleagues -- even the girl he loves (Mia Wasikowska) -- gravitate towards James, fawning over him while continuing to discount poor Simon.

James befriends Simon and pumps up his esteem, all the while conning Simon into doing his work for him. James has insinuated himself into his life, until Simon has almost completely faded away. Yet even Simon has a final straw and this worm determines to turn (to borrow a John Muir’ism).

Written by Dostoyevsky in 1868, the story drew buzz in the trades back in the ‘90s when a Roman Polanski version imploded due to a press war between Polanski and the film’s star John Travolta.  Though it’s sad that Polanski’s vision never hit the screen, it’s obvious watching this version to see what drew Polanski to the subject. The story, like Polanski’s The Tenant, focuses on paranoia and identity crisis. Ayoade creates a claustrophobic world where the walls almost tighten around the protagonist. It’s a gloomy Orwellian world, where Simon is an insignificant cog in the machine, a Kafkaesque bug that barely exists. Besides the literary references, Ayoade quotes Hitchcock, with its fear of authority and voyeurism.

Ayoade paints his screen with drab yellow hues and harsh florescent lighting, a haunting stale effect that reeks of bureaucracy and dehumanization. He masterfully utilizes sound for tension. Subway cars, ominous wind, even the bathroom hand blower sound pulverizing. The noise of high heel shoes almost punctures the audience’s ear drums.

Ayoade and co-writer Avi Korine have constructed an esoteric script where it’s not always clear what’s going on. That adds both a dizzying effect for the audience and a bit of an annoyance for those more interested in plot over mood. Regardless of an audience’s preferences, The Double requires multiple viewings to fully absorb. But even with a plot difficult to follow, the script is filled with delightfully inane dialogue delivered with utter seriousness like Shawn’s “He was the only one not fired from our sister office. Even the cockroaches didn’t survive.”

In both roles, Eisenberg is remarkable. Without relying on costume or make-up differences, Eisenberg only has his presence to differentiate Simon James from James Simon. He captures Simon’s desolation and his eventual empowerment with clarity. How he has one character play off himself as the other demonstrates great talent. In one of the most heartbreaking scenes, Simon confesses, “I’m a wooden boy. I’m Pinocchio and it kills me.” It’s a moment of honesty to the one person he’s found who he thinks believes in him, James. When the camera pans to his “friend,” his “savior,” we find James bored asleep. Simon has finally revealed himself to someone and that person could care less. The wounded look on Eisenberg’s face is shattering.

The rest of the cast, particularly Shawn, reads the lines with the perfect sense of knowing humor. Wasikowska, always an ethereal beauty, is touching as an unattainable princess who turns out emotionally to be made of glass.

The Double is a very quiet comedy-thriller. It offers few laughs and few thrills, but director Ayoade and his lead actor build a universe, one as surreal as a Dali painting.

Jonas Schwartz is a voting member of the Los Angeles Drama Critics, and the West Coast Critic for TheaterMania. Check out his “Jonas at the Movies” reviews at Maryland Nightlife.