DVD Reviews: The Double

Spy movies are a dime a dozen.  Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t.  Hitchcock really pioneered the genre.  Viewers today are so accustomed to “twists”, “reveals” and “spoilers” that everyone assumes it’s supposed to be a Big Secret that the retired CIA man played by Richard Gere in The Double is really . . . a Soviet assassin. (Oops!) But the trailer discloses it, hints are dropped early in the film, and Gere’s character confesses his identity less than half an hour in. And did I mention that the title of the film is The Double?

What is the film about? Story kicks off with the mysterious murder of a senator bearing the marks of a Soviet assassin, who was long thought to be dead. To hunt down the killer, a retired CIA operative, who spent his career going toe-to-toe with his Soviet nemesis, is teamed with a young FBI agent.

Everything about the film is a bit blah…nothing really hits the mark.  I really wish I enjoyed this film a bit more but I did not.  This film is far from horrible.  This isn’t your thinking man spy movie. Here it relies more on action and some surprises. And some nice surprises I might add. It has a nice pace and it will entertain more than enough. But it could have been so much better. The most essential thing that “The Double” lacks is proper build up. One of the surprises is revealed much too quickly which for me spoiled lot of the fun too early on. It is fair to say that I did lose a little interest.

Gere and Grace are both fine if not memorable and they get some assistance form actors such as Martin Sheen, Steven Boyer, Tamer Hassan, and Odette Annable (a refreshing find!). The dialogue is pretty much drowned out by the noisy musical score and the ambient noise of the action. Not a bad movie, just not a memorable one. It could use a bit of tidying up on the editing and the scoring and it might make sense. ?

Commentary with Writer-Director Michael Brandt and Writer-Producer Derek Haas: Brandt and Haas provide a wealth of information about the background of the script and especially the changes it underwent during production and editing.

Producer Interviews: A general featurette containing interviews with Gere, Grace, Moyer, Brandt and Haas. Watch after you see the movie.

The Double looks and sounds amazing on Blu-Ray however the film does not hold up as well.  This is a good rental but definitely not a purchase!