San Francisco International Film Festival 57

A frequent Alfred Hitchcock device, the doppelgänger has cropped up in at least three movies released in the past few months, most recently in The Double (2013) starring Jesse Eisenberg and Mia Wasikowska. The other two are The Face of Love (2013) directed by Arie Posin and Enemy (2013), directed by Denis Villeneuve. Adapted by director Richard Ayoade from a novella by Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Double is the closest to pure fantasy. Set in a dreary unnamed city, Simon (Eisenberg) is a clerk who’s trying unsuccessfully to please his boss, Mr.Papadopoulos (Wallace Shawn). Besides Dostoevsky, novelist Franz Kafka is another strong influence in the film’s depiction of alienation. The set design of the office with its rows of desks is reminiscent of the Orson Welles adaptation of Kafka’s The Trial (1962). There’s also a nod to George Orwell’s 1984 in the character The Colonel (James Fox), the Big Brother-like head of the corporation. He’s an unseen presence until near the end. Wasikowska is Hannah, the girl caught between the doubles. Terrific in Stoker (2012), this time she’s stuck in a part that’s undefined.  Besides Welles, Ayoade draws from a number of visual sources particularly David Lynch. A rock band of older musicians seems to have stepped out of an Aki Kaurismäkii film. It’s mostly calculated, derivative weirdness. The office machines are from the analog era but the exact time frame is kept deliberately ambiguous. Unlike The Face of Love and Enemy, which rely heavily on coincidence, Simon’s alpha male double, James (also Eisenberg), isn’t a mere look-a-like. Eisenberg, who’s constantly working these days, is ideal for the part. He’s handsome enough but not distinctive. Everyone probably remembers a college friend who resembled Jesse Eisenberg. It isn’t hard to imagine him having a double.