The Devil’s Double (2011)

Directed by: Lee Tamahori | 108 minutes | action, drama, biography | Actors: Dominic Cooper, Ludivine Sagnier, Raad Rawi, Mem Ferda, Dar Salim, Khalid Laith, Pano Masti, Nasser Memarzia, Philip Quast, Selva Rasalingam, Mark Mifsud, Mimoun Oaïssa, Stewart Scudamore, Jamie Harding, Akin Gazi

Anyone who thinks that with ‘The Devil’s Double’ they can gain some insight into a family that managed to keep Iraq in its grip for almost half a century, will be disappointed. Like elephants in a china shop, the makers (headed by director Lee Tamahori) stroll through a recent chapter in Babylonia’s centuries-long history. The film about Uday Hussein and his doppelganger Latif Yahia (a double role by Dominic Cooper) sets out ‘true events’ from Yahia’s autobiographies as an excited child recounts his Wednesday afternoon to mothers. Nowhere does the film succeed in giving the impression that you are looking at more than that. The ‘The Devils Double’ only makes an impression when the story comes to a halt and you are allowed to look at a beautiful backlit image for a few seconds: Iraq through a Ray Ban.

The story goes that Saddam Hussein entertained his sons (Uday and Qusai) with torture videos from an early age. So that they could ‘get used to’. That knowledge could give you a grip on Uday, that crazy little man with a squeaky voice, mustache and the Freddie Mercury ‘overbite’ you’re looking at. But in “The Devil’s Double,” Uday presents the torture videos to his doppelganger, Latif. Uday himself has boiled down to a caricature of a caricature: the women around him distinguish him from Latif by his member. When Latif is driven to Uday for the first time, you especially notice the landscape through which he is driven, seated in the back of a chic car. A tourist, you might think. You don’t feel anything at all about what must be going on in the man who is on his way to a sex-addicted sadist who – allegedly – ​​made Olympic swimmers jump from the high diving board into an empty swimming pool. Because they had lost. (In the movie, Uday sends dishonored girls away, in real life he did much worse things.) Still, the idiocy of reality here sporadically gets through. For example, if Uday tries to find balance on a slippery floor while whipping Latif’s back. Or when one doppelganger addresses the other. Unfortunately, those moments are scarce and pass in a flash.

Like Uday, Dominic Cooper snorts coke from a stiletto and rolls Cuban cigars over his lips. He must have something to distinguish diabolical Uday from meaningless Latif. Because who is Latif Yahi, except ‘the Devil’s Double’? His only introduction is being blown off a cliff as a soldier in a grenade attack. In practice, soldiers are nothing more than cannon fodder, statistical data for under the carpet. But Latif has to wear ‘The Devil’s Double’, which takes something that evokes curiosity and empathy. “You’re asking me to sacrifice my personality,” we hear him say to Uday. But which personality disappears behind the fake teeth and plastic surgery? It keeps guessing a movie for a long time. Unfortunately, the reason Uday and his doppelganger stand out is that the rest of the characters are portrayed even more superficially. See the rise of sweetheart Sarrab (Ludivine Sagnier, once the girl from ‘Swimming Pool’): her hips swinging and playing the entire space. Would she think she was on her way to Austin Powers or Inspector Clouseau? And poor Mimoun Ouaïssa, the Dutch hope in this film (‘The Devil’s Double’ is an almost-Dutch production with an international cast). During 90 percent of the film, his work consists of soulless image filling. Even his sticky mustache lacks grip.

In too many ways, ‘The Devil’s Double’ is reminiscent of an Arabian soap episode that was accidentally spent a few million too much. The acting is classically cringe-inducing (that is, you see the actors act), the screenplay is a jumble of fact and fiction, even more silly than it is wooden. There is a sequence in which Uday is ambushed in the middle of a busy street. Such an attack was actually committed, but not simply because someone wanted to avenge his disgraced wife. In scenes like these, ‘The Devil’s Double’ uses Iraq as the Rambo movies used Vietnam: as an excuse for thrills, thrills, and cheap revenge. You learn little more here than that the Husseins were a bunch of screwed up Mafioso. They may well have been, but their impact was slightly greater than that, wasn’t it?

The film does not succeed as a ‘cheap thriller’ or ‘harmless entertainment’ either. He’s more likely to make you feel like some lost college students – with a Scarface poster in their room – have ventured into a puzzle beyond their comprehension. Characteristic is how the moment is played out that Latif as a doppelganger has to be inspected by father Saddam. He waits emphatically until Latif is already at the exit to throw in a telltale bouncer: “Make sure you don’t give me a reason to be mad at you.” brrr.