The Devil’s Double

If Dominic Cooper could still be called forgettable after his Captain America turn, this will bring him up to the A-list, if there’s any justice. A somewhat ponderous and repetitive film, it was bourn aloft by his superb performance(s) as both Uday and Latif – the son of Saddam Hussein and the man chosen to act as his double.

The story rattles along, loosely bolted to reality – army man Latif is coerced into becoming Uday’s double by the threat of his family being killed. Uday, it soon becomes apparent, is power-drunk and utterly psychotic, perfectly happy to rape schoolgirls he picked up from the streets and kill anyone he takes a dislike to. Latif, despite the close resemblance to Uday enhanced by plastic surgery and false teeth, remains aloof of the decadent party lifestyle, and begins to find he can defy Uday more than most, as Uday seems quite infatuated with this second form of himself. Eventually things come to a head with Latif unable to continue, and in a rather bewildering sequence of events, he attempts suicide, is returned to his family, summoned back, has a shoot-out with his insane doppelganger, then manages to flee the country – before returning for an assassination attempt as a climax to the film.
Overlaid on this is a rather contrived love story, in which Latif secretly begins a relationship with one of Uday’s favoured women, who knows that he will one day tire of her and leave her dead. It’s all rather unlikely and artificial, and I spent most of the film wondering where I’d seen her before (it was as Tinkerbell in Peter Pan), but I suppose it gave a bit of respite from the violence and paranoia.

With graphic violence and gratuitous drug use, it is at heart a gangster film, and the absurd nudity towards the end takes it too close to a cheap exploitation flick, but the basis in a real story and the dilemma Latif must face make for compelling viewing. Uday is interesting at a distance, because while his character does not progress, that’s rather the point: he is forever a child, self-centred and unhinged, dangerous and unpredictable. It is his relationship with Latif that becomes so interesting, as well as the brooding, powerful figure of his father.

Not the best-written film of all time, but very interesting, timely and with a superb central performance. |