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| THE
DEVIL'S DOUBLE |
Movie review by Neil Sadler
Starring: Dominic Cooper, Ludivine Sagnier, Raad Rawi, Mem Ferda,
Dar Salim, Khalid Laith
Director: Lee Tamahori
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One of the problems with any
true story is that real life doesn't often follow a path that lends
itself to story telling. There isn't always a hero, a villain and
more importantly the denouements that make a story compelling.
As true stories go, the tale
of Latif Yahia is an amazing one with a clearly defined hero and
villain. Effectively kidnapped and surgically altered, Latif was
forced to act as a double for Saddam Hussein’s oldest son Uday and
also to share his life of drugs, sex and violence or lose the family he was
devoted to.
The film portrays the
culture of fear that existed in Saddam’s Iraq but also tells the
familiar story of how power and money are the ultimate corruption
and often it is those who have both and are determined never to lose
them that are the most dangerous.
In the twin roles of Uday
and Latif, Dominic Cooper is extremely impressive. The fact that you
rarely feel like you are watching one actor play two roles is proof
of how talented an actor he is. You also rarely question which
character he is playing, which is testament to his acting as well as
to the skill in the writing of the characters and how well they are
defined.
What works less successfully
is the directing and the problems that exist with the overall story.
It seems like the director, Lee Tamahori, is determined to mimic the
worst excesses of SCARFACE and portray Uday Hussein’s world as much the
same. If Hussein was the focus of the story, this may have worked,
but script clearly places Latif as the main character and we are
asked to invest our sympathies in him, which for the most part we
do. But when the focus shifts to Uday, Tamahori threatens to
glorify this world, much as SCARFACE did. Villain’s are
often more interesting than heroes and here, although we may admire
and sympathize with Latif, it is
Uday and his violence and unpredictability that make for the films
most memorable moments.
With so much screen time for
Cooper, it is natural that the other characters slip into the
background. Ludivine Sagnier plays a prostitute in Uday’s circle
of power who flirts with both Uday and Latif, but her character and
motives are very underwritten.
Philip Quast is a commanding
Saddam, but is necessarily a background figure in this story.
The story loses it’s way
in the middle and lack of a defined ending that is often a fault
with stories based on true events, and threaten to weaken the impact towards the end.
But ultimately it is left to
Dominic Cooper to carry the film and for the most part he succeeds
admirably. Never caricatured, he plays both his roles with the right
amount of menace and believability. It is no mean feat to play both
the “Devil” and his double and still leave the double with some
of the “best tunes”.
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