The Devils Double (Lee Tamahori)
I have to admit that I saw this movie on a whim knowing little about it, but the tale of a man forced to 'double' as the fearsome Udal Hussein at the height of his megalomania intrigued me. Then I saw the directors credit. Lee Tamahori? what the hell was the man behind such modern classics as 'XxX 2: the next level' 'Next' and of course 'Die Another Day' (didnt that film nearly kill Bond? I mean as a franchise not as a character) doing at the helm of an Iraq set drama about the insanity of power and the brutality of the Saddam Hussein regime? anyway enough question marks, I got answers in the subsequent 109 minutes.
Firstly this isnt a terrible film. It is though, a real wasted opportunity, for whilst the bizarre tale unfolds of a man plucked from obscurity and forced to have plastic surgery to act as a double to the insane Uday, the political and historical context of the tale is largely ignored. What we get is a very personal story, virtually a memoir of Latif Yahia the unfortunate soul in question and whilst I can see the appeal to a filmmaker of the sheer brutality and unhinged mania of a character like Uday he is, in essence, a caricature. Similarly Latif is depicted as a fairly one dimensional character,surely the fault of a fairly poor script which offers no back story to either man, leaving Latif as a passive blank and Uday as a crazed rapist drug addict. We see nothing of the logic or motivation behind the way Udal acts, we are just told 'He's insane' and we learn so little about Latif that we are essentially just thrown into a rather surreal two hander and asked to accept it.
Dominic Cooper does his best with the flimsy material on offer and I can see why the dual role would appeal but I feel he is badly let down. Even worse and I would suggest fairly unforgivable is Tamahori's insistence on including Bond style action set pieces in the final third of the movie to up the tempo, even throwing in the requisite scantily clad female for Latif to rescue and ultimately provide the film with its least plausible plot twists and its most excruciating dialogue. It is in this third act that the film falls apart. Prior to this there are some intriguing moments and instances of real horror; Udals predilection and abuse of a procession of young schoolgirls and a horrific wedding set piece are particularly grim.
There is however a Hollywood sheen gently misting this film which seems entirely at odds with the subject matter and while there are perfunctory news reels to give some indication of the U.S invasion I get the impression that this is a production entirely uninterested in how a country like Iraq became the pariah of the Western world and how Saddam and in turn Uday consolidated his power. I also felt that the very nature of the evil behind men like Udal, cowards in inherited positions of power governed by avarice and opportunity with an chilling ambivalence towards his fellow man was unsufficiently explored, and I couldnt help wondering how this project would have fared under the guidance of a filmmaker like Michael Winterbottom or even Danny Boyle.
A missed opportunity then and a shame for Dominic Cooper who is both commited and at times fairly electrifying. And he would make a half decent Bond come to think of it....
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