At least those were the words that director, Denis Villeneuve used to describe his film before its world premier at TIFF on September 8th. Although, I feel it had more to do with broken relationships and introspection. My film watching companion is a fan of Jose Saragamo's work, so I thought she would be the perfect person to bring a long to watch this adaptation of his novel, The Double.
As with many book to film adaptations, new elements are added, some things are taken away and a few details are changed. And some interesting choices were made in these details. For example, the was the introduction of a tarantula trope throughout the film. What did it mean? I'm not ashamed to say that I don't really know (manontany? jealousy? desire? deceit?) . And it was the only question the cast and crew refused to answer in the Q&A following the film. Maybe they weren't so sure about it either.
The story: History professor Adam Bell watches a movie where one of the background actors looks just like him. Intrigued by this idea, he seeks him out and eventually meets Anthony in a surreal encounter. Their lives are now intertwined as their appearance and boredom with their own lives allows them an avenue with which to escape the everyday.
There were some things I really enjoyed about the film. I like that it was filmed in Toronto and that the story took place in Toronto and not Toronto disguised as New York or Chicago. I liked the yellowish tone to the film, particularly with the story of Adam, giving it an old and worn look. With the exception of two Nicholas Cage tempter-tantrum like moments, I thought that Jake Gyllenhaal did a phenomenal job of playing two characters in the same film. Giving each of them their own life while still keeping them connected. I imagine that the subtleties are the most challenging to master for an actor. Melanie Laurent and Sarah Gadon also did fantastic jobs as the girlfriend and wife of the two main characters. And the score! I loved the score. The deep orchestral sounds were perfect. I never would've thought the oboe to be so powerful.
And although I enjoy the occasional mind-bend film, this one lacked something. Not only did the afore mentioned tarantula's confuse me, there were a few other areas where the story was lacking. For example, if Adam Bell has a steady full-time job as a history professor and Anthony is an out of work background actor with only three film credits, why does Adam have the shitty apartment and Anthony gets to wear nice clothes, go to exclusive fetish parties and ride around on a motorcycle? In translating the book to film the obsession that Adam has with Anthony is also lost. He doesn't have to dedicate as much time to finding him and doesn't really seem to struggle with the idea of presenting himself to his doppelganger.
I wanted this film to dive deeper into this realm of duality. I wanted to be drawn into the debate about whether or not they were actually two people, or one crazy man leading two separate lives. How do they continue their lives if there are two of them? Why are they two of them? Are they long lost conjoined twins? Clones? Who knows. And the film didn't really care to explore these possibilities. It just kind of glazed over them in passing and then continued on as if there were no real questions to be asked.
I think it was a good film, but that it could be a GREAT film with a little re-working. I'm not saying that it's the same, but even Psycho took more than one try.
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