Doing the Devil's Double

It was Dominic Cooper that drew me to this film. He's got very good at playing confident and slightly arrogant characters but this film about Uday Hussein's (Saddam's son) body double affords him the chance to play two very different people.

And I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. It is an interesting and at times brutal story about a Latif Yahia who is forced into becoming a lookey-likey for the cocaine-snorting, sex-obsessed, sadistic son of the former Iraqi leader.

The hedonistic, volatile Uday is the opposite of everything that Latif stands for but he quickly realises that not only does he look like Saddam's son but his life is his also.

And Dominic Cooper does such a great job at the two roles, a couple of times I did squint at the screen questioning whether it was indeed him playing both parts. Okay so there is some cliched dialogue but it is compelling viewing with the ever present threat of violence and death making for a tense hour and 50 minutes viewing.

The film is based on a true story although the ending has the most obvious dose of filmic license and isn't an easy watch at times, certainly earning its 18 certificate, but definitely worth enduring the hands over the eyes moments.

I'm going to give The Devil's Double 78%. On IMDb it has got 68% and on Rotten Tomatoes it has got 72% from audiences but no consensus from critics.

 

 

Comments

[Simon Pudsey]

I didnt realise you had been til I was just looking! I saw this on Thurs night 18th. It is a very remsarkabel film and I did occasionally lose track of Uday / Latif, it was that good. I was really impressed that the film did not lapse into a gaudy back slap for the rout of the Iraqi regime by the Merkins. I had concerns that this could happen, but was very satisfied that it did dwell on giving a good character driven film. The portrayal of Uday as an increasingly insane overindulged child gave the film its structure and I was particularly interested that Lee Tamahori chose to develop his character without a single redeeming feature. This has to be almost unique.
I wonder if you can measure this kind of film in a similar way to comedy e.g. 5 real laughs or in this case,cos there was a lack of lols, 5 cookie toss moments.
Goodness, some of the themes were severe...