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The Double (2013)
Richard Ayoade's second film definitely confirms the promise and talent he showed with his debut film, Submarine. In his first film, he showed us that he wasn't afraid to do some pretty ambitious visual stuff. Submarine was a wonderfully playful dramedy and Ayoade just knew how to present a story like that in a visually interesting and refreshing way. If some people thought he'd do another Wes Anderson-like melancholic love story like Submarine though, they were VERY wrong.
In The Double he sure keeps his visual playfulness, but this time he uses it at the service of a much darker and surreal tale about a lonely young man (played by Jesse Eisenberg), who feels like he doesn't really exist and who lives in a gloomy, dystopian world. He has no real connection whatsoever with other people (not even his own elderly mother can offer him any real love), everyone behaves unfriendly towards him and at work he gets no recognition at all for what he's doing. The worst thing is that his personality isn't strong enough to do anything about it and he kind of lets everything and everyone walk over him. In a speech he compares himself to Pinocchio in the sense that he feels like a wooden boy, pulled around by strings, not like a "real boy". Suddenly his exact physical double (but also his mental opposite) starts working at the same company and he finally needs to confront his attitude of living.
Some situations and dialogues are funny (a few even hilarious), which makes this dark and surreal story about the search for identity and the struggle to avoid complete repression oddly comical and therefore easier to digest.
The film is based on the novel by Dostoyevsky, but towards the end it goes in a complete different direction. I'm not going to spoil anything, but the third act might also be the most "slippery" part of the film for me. The surrealism escalates, the pace gets more volatile and everything flows into really ambiguous territory. I was personally fine with it (although not completely satisfied yet), but I can see why some people wouldn't like the conclusion. Some other people will absolutely love it, though. I'm still thinking about it for the moment and I'd love to discuss it with other people who've seen the film.
This film's "universe" and visual atmosphere reminded me of Gilliam's Brazil (which is one of my favorite films of all time), Lynch's Eraserhead and also a little bit of Hitchcock's Rear Window. I recommend this film ESPECIALLY to Gilliam and Lynch fans! It's an ambitious little flick that really works as an hommage to those two directors.
All in all, I really enjoyed it. I wouldn't quite put this on par with masterpieces like Brazil or Eraserhead just yet, but Richard Ayoade definitely established himself as one of the most intriguing upcoming directors of our time (in my opinion). I don't care if his next film is a vintage-looking, stylized melancholic romantic teenage dramedy, like Submarine, a Lynchian/Gilliamesque Russian novel adaptation full with retro Japanese music, like The Double or something completely different, but I'm already looking forward to it! He's a refreshing new director and I hope he'll get the recognition (and the film budgets) he deserves.
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Richard Ayoade's second film definitely confirms the promise and talent he showed with his debut film, Submarine. In his first film, he showed us that he wasn't afraid to do some pretty ambitious visual stuff. Submarine was a wonderfully playful dramedy and Ayoade just knew how to present a story like that in a visually interesting and refreshing way. If some people thought he'd do another Wes Anderson-like melancholic love story like Submarine though, they were VERY wrong.
In The Double he sure keeps his visual playfulness, but this time he uses it at the service of a much darker and surreal tale about a lonely young man (played by Jesse Eisenberg), who feels like he doesn't really exist and who lives in a gloomy, dystopian world. He has no real connection whatsoever with other people (not even his own elderly mother can offer him any real love), everyone behaves unfriendly towards him and at work he gets no recognition at all for what he's doing. The worst thing is that his personality isn't strong enough to do anything about it and he kind of lets everything and everyone walk over him. In a speech he compares himself to Pinocchio in the sense that he feels like a wooden boy, pulled around by strings, not like a "real boy". Suddenly his exact physical double (but also his mental opposite) starts working at the same company and he finally needs to confront his attitude of living.
Some situations and dialogues are funny (a few even hilarious), which makes this dark and surreal story about the search for identity and the struggle to avoid complete repression oddly comical and therefore easier to digest.
The film is based on the novel by Dostoyevsky, but towards the end it goes in a complete different direction. I'm not going to spoil anything, but the third act might also be the most "slippery" part of the film for me. The surrealism escalates, the pace gets more volatile and everything flows into really ambiguous territory. I was personally fine with it (although not completely satisfied yet), but I can see why some people wouldn't like the conclusion. Some other people will absolutely love it, though. I'm still thinking about it for the moment and I'd love to discuss it with other people who've seen the film.
This film's "universe" and visual atmosphere reminded me of Gilliam's Brazil (which is one of my favorite films of all time), Lynch's Eraserhead and also a little bit of Hitchcock's Rear Window. I recommend this film ESPECIALLY to Gilliam and Lynch fans! It's an ambitious little flick that really works as an hommage to those two directors.
All in all, I really enjoyed it. I wouldn't quite put this on par with masterpieces like Brazil or Eraserhead just yet, but Richard Ayoade definitely established himself as one of the most intriguing upcoming directors of our time (in my opinion). I don't care if his next film is a vintage-looking, stylized melancholic romantic teenage dramedy, like Submarine, a Lynchian/Gilliamesque Russian novel adaptation full with retro Japanese music, like The Double or something completely different, but I'm already looking forward to it! He's a refreshing new director and I hope he'll get the recognition (and the film budgets) he deserves.
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