The Double

The Double is Richard Ayoade's second feature film after Submarine (2010) and even though the tone and pace is similar, this is infinitely darker. It has the look and feel on 1984 and the work place could be another room from John Hurt is about to enter at any moment. In comparison with this, however, The Double is almost light in topic.

Simon James, the main protagonist, has been working at the same, dingy place for 7 years but has made barely an impact. One of his co-workers actually refers to him - quite fittingly - as "a bit of a non-person". He has been pining for Hannah and spends his evenings looking at her through a telescope from the house right opposite where she lives.

One day his lonely existence is shaken by the arrival of his doppelganger, James Simon. James is everything that Simon is not - self-assured, charming, noticeable and a go-getter. After Simon's initial shock and bewilderment of why nobody appears to be fazed by the two looking exactly alike, the two seem to be getting along. But soon Simon is doing chores that get attributed to James and Hannah, of course, falls for the wrong guy.

It is all very bleak with moments of hilarity and scenes that could be right out a David Lynch film (the elderly band performing at a mandatory company event!). The film is peppered with Japanese (?) lounge music and a perfectly fitting orchestral score.

I admit that I am not a fan of Jesse Eisenberg, because I argue that he has been playing the same role in pretty much every film he is in (or, that I have seen him in). Here, at least, he gets the chance to play two characters with very different characteristics. Still not convinced that his acting chops are up to scratch, though.

Anyway, the film just keeps getting weirder and weirder (in a good way). Not many films these days are this interesting.

7/10

That Evening Sun

Old Mr Meecham bails from the old folks' home to return to his farm. When he gets there he finds the Choat family has rented the place off of his son. What's worse, it is a family Meecham considers to be white trash, and he tells the father so frequently.

Refusing to leave he decides to stay in the tenant's house and wait for them to leave because he believes that it still is his place and he wants to live out his days there. Lonzo Choat drinks to much and is trying to make ends meet and scrape together the money for their payments to buy the farm.

The two men come to blows more than once. One night, his teenage daughter Pamela goes on a date with a young man her father does not approve of. When he drops her off at the farm, Lonzo starts going at them with a gardening hose before Meecham interferes. And in the middle of it all is Meecham's son Paul, who tries to convince his father to return to the home. There does not appear to be a solution that any of them can live with.

Hal Holbrook is wonderful as old Meecham.

8/10

Stoker

Um...?

I really wanted to like this one. After all, Chan-wook Park made Oldboy (aka one of the greatest films ever made that did not need a remake). But is was mostly just beautiful shots of stoic people.

The story is that of India Stoker and her weird mother Evelyn, trying to deal with the sudden loss of father and husband Richard. On the day of his funeral his younger brother Charlie shows up and just hangs around, creepily looking at them both and first killing the housekeeper and then his visiting aunt.

Both, Evelyn and India become infatuated with him and he plays along. After India and Charlie team up in killing India's high school friend Whip (his name is Whip?) who is about to rape young India, the girl learns that her uncle Charlie was in fact in a mental institution for the last twenty or so years for killing his and Richard's little brother Jonathan. Little Charlie was jealous of all the attention the baby got from his older brother, so he dug a hole for the boy (literally).

What's more, on India's 18th birthday not only did Richard die in a car accident but it was also the day Charlie got released from the institution. Learning that Richard did not, in fact, want him in his family but rather got him a car and an apartment in far away New York, Charlie snaps (yet again) and beats his brother to death before staging a car accident.

Now, does this make India shy away from her uncle. No it does not. Rather she decides to leave with him for New York. But then the mother gets in the way. She sees the pair get overly friendly and as Charlie is in the process of committing yet another murder, India shoots him instead. And then takes off alone. And then kills a cop that stops her for speeding.

Somewhat disappointing - to me, anyway.

5/10