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Trent Film Society Presents: Richard Ayoade's The Double

Trent Film Society Presents: Richard Ayoade's The Double

• September 17, 2014 : 8:00 PM - 10:00 PM

The Double  Richard Ayoade, 2013, United Kingdom, 93 min.  Starring Jesse Eisenberg and Mia Wasikowska 

Come join us for a free film screening at Artspace (378 Aylmer Street North) The show begins at 8pm. All are welcome!

The Double is an intriguing film that unfortunately fell under the radar of mainstream cinemas. At times it reminds me of the dank underworld of David Lynch's Eraserhead, the sense of claustrophobia and entrapment setting in early on, and at others I'm reminded of the concept of the bureaucratic, totalitarian government conspiring against the individual, namely that of Terry Gilliam's Brazil. Put both of these films together and you wind up with the comically dark film The Double, the second feature of British actor/comedian/writer/director Richard Ayoade.   

The film stars Academy Award Nominee Jesse Eisenberg as timid employee Simon James who works as a clerk for an unnamed company in a tightly spaced, dark office building. It isn't important what he does; what matters is that he is lonely, doesn't fit in, and constantly has trouble in virtually every facet of his life. Along comes aptly named James Simon (also played by Eisenberg) to work one day, a man who looks, sounds, and dresses exactly like Simon. James immediately wins the praise of his coworkers and is the talk of the town at the office. James is the epitome of what Simon is not: James is confident, snarky, witty, and knows how to get on peoples' good side. The two befriend one another, but things spiral downward rather quickly. Through various avenues, James becomes a burden to Simon and the two quickly turn into enemies.    The Double is a rather manic film. Things move briskly and director Richard Ayoade does not mess around here; he knows precisely how to pace the story he has adapted from Fyodor Dostoyevsky's 1846 novella of the same name. There is an underlying tension throughout the film that creates conflict: are we to laugh at the scenarios we find Simon and his doppelganger James in, or do we feel as anxious as he does in his chaotic world? In most cases, it's a bit of both. The aforementioned pacing and feel of The Double is expertly edited so as to demonstrate this lingering air of weariness. The doppelganger narrative in The Double is nothing new to the cinema, with films such as David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers (1988), Spike Jonze's Adaptation (2002), and the upcoming TFS screening of Denis Villeneuve's Enemy (2013; on September 24th @ Market Hall) all portraying a similar story of the two doubles finding themselves in awkward scenarios simply because their lookalike exists. The Double, while not necessarily reinventing the wheel, is both fun and uncomfortable and provides us with a different flavour of this story archetype.     The Double also features rising star Mia Wasikowska (Stoker, Alice in Wonderland) and the inconceivably great Wallace Shawn (My Dinner With Andre, The Princess Bride).   

Posted on Monday, September 15, 2014.

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