The Devil’s Double

The title refers to Latif Yahia, an Iraqi who, thanks to a childhood friendship and an uncanny resemblance, became a body double for Saddam Hussein’s infamous son Uday during the first gulf war.  The problem with The Devil’s Double is that the devil is a psychopath and the double is a bore. Both men are played by hunky English actor Dominic Cooper, who seemed to have interpreted the dual role as a mandate to make the two as unlike each other as possible.  Mission accomplished: his Latif is a tedious straight man while his Uday is somewhere between Jack Nicholson in The Departed and Borat.

Uday is clearly nuts, raping, killing, and stealing left and right; Latif is coerced into service by torture and threats to his family. The rest of Uday’s entourage is either bullied into complicity, seduced by power, or deceiving themselves by appealing to the divine will. (“Insha’Allah,” Uday’s gentlemanly chief of security keeps repeating – if it’s God’s will.) This is easily the most interesting thing about The Devil’s Double – how does someone like Uday get so many presumably sane and intelligent people to do his bidding? – but director Lee Tamahori is more concerned with fetishizing Uday’s every outrageous boast and act of violence. Brash, loud, and production-designed to within an inch of its life, the film plays like someone heard a crazy story at a bar one night and believed every word.

-- Eugene Novikov

Released:	2011
Genres:	Thriller, Crime, Drama, Action
Starring:	Khalid Laith, Dar Salim, Mem Ferda, Raad Rawi, Ludivgne Sagnier, Dominic Cooper
Directed by:	Lee Tamahori
Screenwriters:	Michael Thomas
Rated:	R