Saturday, August 6, 2011

The Devil's Double

It's been a long time since a film allowed me to forget that I was sitting in a theater watching a movie as thoroughly as this one did.
The Devil's Double tells the true story of Latif Yahia, a young Iraqi lieutenant forced into service as Uday Hussein's body double/decoy/bullet catcher. This journey into the life of Uday exposes Latif to a world of unimagined privilage, mindless opulance, and brutal cruelty leaving him searching for a way out.

Dominic Cooper plays the roles of Latif and Uday. This means that he is often on screen twice at the same time, usually talking to himself. No easy feat for any actor to pull off convincingly, having to inhabit two different personalities for the same project. If he hasn't earned some sort of academy acclaim (or whatever) then that would be an injustice. Kudos as well for the editing of the scenes. It's flawless and seamless.

Limited release, but as far as I know it's playing all the major cities. Hopefully, it will roll out for a wider audience soon cause to catch it on Netflix would be a dishonor. This is a big screen effort.

If you can, go see it. It's worth it.

1 comment:

Brian said...

Playing down the street at the Egyptian. Looks great...