THE DOUBLE ****
THE AMAZING SPIDERMAN 2 ***
Dir: Richard Ayoade (15, 93 mins)
Following the success of Submarine, IT Crowd alumnus Ayoade tackles
a far weightier, blackly comic project for his second feature film. Based on
Dostoyevsky’s story, it stars Jesse Eisenberg as Simon – a mediocre drone working
for an Orwellian company run by The Colonel, James Fox. Eisenberg’s humdrum
existence alters however as this shy timid worker finds out he has a doppelgänger
James, who is everything he’s not: outgoing and rather sinister. Gradually James
starts to take over Simon’s life and his object of affection Mia Wasikowska. Luckily
the weightier themes are displaced by some fun in the shape of a TV show that
Simon loves, a cheesy retro sci-fi series which stars a clearly-having-too-muchfun Paddy Considine. Ayoade has fashioned something that Terry Gilliam would
have favoured, a Kafka-esque dystopia injected with wry humour and a strong
but not sympathetic central set of performances from Eisenberg whose chilly,
downtrodden geekiness infuses Simon whilst his double James has more passion
but more discomfort and danger. Handsomely