Jake Gyllenhaal gets to play doppelgangers in this eerie thriller from Denis Villeneuve, adapted - with a great deal of creative extrapolation - from the novel The Double by Jose Saramago.
Adam Bell (Gyllenhaal) is a history teacher who, upon the recommendation of a colleage, rents a film and notices that one of the bit players - Anthony Claire - is his exact double. Becoming increasingly obsessed with this man, Adam's life begins to unravel and entwine itself with Anthony's in sinister fashion.
Villeneuve - working from a screenplay by Javier Gullón - has transformed Saramago's novel into a mixture of David Cronenberg and David Lynch, giving the film an unsettling, murky yellowing palette as well as strong, surreal visual metaphors. He invites the audience to pick apart and attempt to decipher the meaning of the film, and therefore has created a movie open for interpretation and debate.
Gyllenhaal manages to create subtle distinctions between his two roles, making both men - at first - empathetic, though as the film progresses our perceptions of both characters shift dramatically. It's up to Melanie Laurent and Sarah Gadon - as Adam's girlfriend and Anthony's wife respectively - to give the film its emotional resonances, especially Gadon whose performance won her a Canadian Screen Award.
Perhaps at times the film is too much of a puzzle to really allow you to engage with it fully, but its complexities are elegantly balanced and ultimately it's a provactive, unsettling and intriguing viewing experience, that rewards your patience and attention.
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