The Double - A dark Kafkaesque comedy

Richard Ayoade is an interesting guy.  Having appeared as the arch-nerd Moss in the now classic Channel 4 comedy series The IT Crowd for several years, he has entered into the realm of story-telling on the silver screen, writing and directing his own feature length productions.  Firstly in 2010 with the excellent Submarine, and now last year with The Double - which stars a number of actors from the Hollywood mainstream as well as those he has worked with in his previous small-screen British work.  Is Ayoade moving into the mainstream?  On the surface the answer is maybe.  Though when you watch The Double you realise his ideas are still firmly rooted in the absurd.

The Double is a sort of Kafka-esque black comedy set in a place of dark bureaucratic nightmares not unlike the world of Terry Gilliam's Brazil.  Jesse Eisenberg plays Simon, a small time office worker toiling away in a small cubicle with little or no prospects in the world.  His job appears to be routine and pointless, the security guard he passes every day hardly even recognises him.  The only thing that keeps Simon going is his infatuation with Hannah (Mia Wasikowska), who lives across the street from him and works in the steam-punk inspired photo-copy room in his office block.  He dreams about telling her how he understands her pain and loneliness, but whenever they're together, is unable to even maintain eye contact.

It's into this dystopia that Simon's exact double James (also played by Eisenberg obviously) suddenly appears as the new guy in the office.  Now the weirdness gets really weird, as some people seem unable to spot the similarities between Simon and James, while some like Hannah seem unable to tell them apart.  The similarities between James and Simon are only skin deep though.  James is as brash and outgoing as Simon is nerdy and insular, and before long James seems destined for promotion to the top while Hannah has fallen head over heels for him.  All the while Simon looks on as his doppelgänger starts to live his life better than he was - wondering how it is that someone ostensibly the same as him can be having such a different existence.

It's part science fiction, part dyspotian black comedy and partly a character study into the insecurities of people who find it hard to connect to others and see the world of human interaction as an incomprehensible Kafkaesque maze.  The world of The Double is intricately created, with interesting set designs that give us a number of contraptions and ideas firmly rooted in the steam punk genre.  It's clear that Ayoade is interested in the insecurities of the nerd, and the way that the world of the film is presented to us is almost too unreal to be anything other than simply the way that the introverted Simon perceives it.  James for example is too cool and confident to be real, Hannah too dreamy to be real - both more likely depictions of how Simon perceives others and his inability to understand them.

The film ends in as weird a way as the preceding 90 minutes, with a number of interpretations possible.  There was some debate in my house as to what the final looks between the characters actually meant, and exactly what Simon has learnt or decided about the way he's living his life.  It's entertaining, thought-provoking and darkly comic in just the right way.  It's easily worth your time.