An indie existential drama based on an early Dostoyevsky novella. Jesse Eisenberg is a hapless worker with a dehumanizing job in some bleak dystopian society who begins to lose his tenuous sanity when a charming doppelganger enters his life and begins to attain everything he desires. The Double is small in scale and not particularly deep or provoking, but its well-polished black humor makes it worth catching. Directed by comedian Richard Ayoade, it’s flush with unexpectedly funny bits and finely-tuned comedic performances from the supporting cast. Borrowing from the visual themes of early Lynch and Cronenberg (Eisenberg’s office is fitted with bizarre retrograde technology) and scored to Japanese pop music, The Double is an endearing oddity.
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