Double, The

Released by: Image Entertainment
Released on: January 31, 2012.
Director: Michael Brandt
Cast: Richard Gere, Topher Grace
Year: 2011
Purchase From Amazon

The Movie:

Proving yet again that a decent pedigree doesn't equal a great finished product we have The Double, a bit of an homage to 70's/80's spy flicks - it's the U.S. versus Russia but in the modern day, featuring assassins, double agents, sleeper agents and many old white men.

Richard Gere plays Paul Richardson, a longtime and long-retired CIA agent who had devoted himself to hunting down a Russian master assassin codenamed “Cassius.” Pulling him out of retirement after a US senator is inexplicably murdered (really - the motive for this is never explained) is CIA director Martin Sheen. Richardson is paired with young agent Geary (Topher Grace) who has also devoted his career to the persona of Cassius and feels he has returned. Richardson's not so certain and so the two set out to track down any leads they can.

Their biggest lead comes from information they get from the incarcerated Brutus (Stephen Moyer), one of Cassius' old team of assassins. However, just as the picture starts to form, Brutus escapes from prison and is quickly murdered himself. Geary can't let the case rest, despite Richardson's objections that he should do so for the sake of his own and his family's safety. As they begin to get closer to Cassius' trail tensions begin to escalate, leading to both men to begin to suspect even each other as having more in this pursuit than they've admitted.

The subsequent reveal and climax, though, feel very forced, due mostly to the fact that about 97% of the key plot twists are shown way too early in the film, in scenes where the characters are separate. This omniscience adds some tension to the film, to be sure, but not as much as if they'd left it up to the audience's imagination rather than just saying, “Hey, look - this guy's actually a spy! Oooh!” Thus the ending is very deflated and even a last-second gimmick feels just like that - a sad attempt to try and inflate this saggy story and give it some life.

Video/Audio/Extras:

This disc from Image looks darn good and takes advantage of the widescreen 2.35:1 ratio, filling the screen with some impressive establishing shots and panoramas. But the DTS-HD Master 5.1 audio track played very low for me, resulting in my having to increase the volume far higher than I've had to with similar soundtracks. This seems out of place on this fairly well-produced disc. English SDH and Spanish subtitling is available in case you don't want to crank your system up, too.

A short “behind-the-scenes” summary featuring interviews with the name actors and the filmmakers adding some detail about the characters and the story is actually more insightful than the included director's commentary track. Director Michael Brandt and co-writer/producer Derek Haas handle the duties here and, to them, the film is pretty much darned near perfect as-is. To them, it's clever and full of tension and moving action, with every performance “great.” They provide some good insights on the production and on editing (as it sounds like they may teach a filmmaking course at Baylor University). But they overlook the gaps in the story and plot entirely, unfortunately.

Summary:

It's too bad the filmmakers don't have faith in their story and have to force so many plot points because all the elements of a good old-style spy flick are in place. They also get good performances from pretty much everyone involved, especially Gere and Grace who's forced (by the authorities in the film) partnership is the one thing in the movie that doesn't feel forced or out of sync. And given that the filmmakers Brandt and Haas have some decent scripts under their collective belt (Wanted, 3:10 To Yuma) they should really do better with the reigns in their hands. And, in the end, The Double feels like just that - a bit of a cheating duplicate of films we've seen before, rather than a proper homage.