There’s no park for the boys this morning. The aim is to
keep Doggo from over stretching himself so that he won’t limp into kennels next
weekend.
Instead L spoils me by letting me take her boot shopping. We
head over to Calverton to a couple of horsey type places that sell boots
suitable for a WAG with a busy schedule of supporting to do. We find a suitably
exotic pair but the shop owner seems a little put out when I try to haggle her
down to the price they are on the internet. I succeed but only because we
failed to find a really good internet price on her ipad.
Then back home, lo and behold, L goes out for a bike ride. She
keeps saying cycling is the way to go and asking when our next sportive is.
It’s all very odd and not the sort of thing she’s used to saying but I
certainly don’t want to quell this new two wheeled enthusiasm.
In the evening we are back at Broadway.
The Double is loosely based on the Dostoevsky novel.
We meet Simon James (Jesse Eisenberg) on a train; deep in
his own thoughts. Thoughts which are interrupted when someone tells him he's in
his seat. The rest of the carriage is empty but Simon decides to move anyway. Then
instead of taking another seat he chooses to stand in the empty carriage, this
you realise later is important.
You see Simon is insignificant and he knows it. At work,
nobody knows him or even remembers him from one day to the next despite him
working there for seven years. He has ideas but nobody, least of all his boss,
wants to listen to them and he lacks the courage to speak up for himself. As
for the cute girl who does the photocopying (Mia Wasikowska), he knows he’s
never going to have the confidence to declare his interest in her.
If Simon lacks balls, then James must have extra. James
Simon is a new work colleague and is everything Simon wants to be. He is
confident and adored by everyone. He is also Simon’s double, an exact physical
double. Although this fact goes unnoticed by everyone apart from Simon himself.
At first Simon makes friends with him and helps him with his
work only to see James lauded by his boss using Simon’s own ideas. Not only is
James an instant hit with his boss, he proves irresistible to the girls as well.
Whilst Hannah of photocopying room has never given Simon a second glance, she
is immediately enthralled by James and asks Simon to fix them up.
The big question throughout is, is James real? and how much
of what we see actually is real? Is James merely an alter-ego? There are hints
in many directions but we never get to really find out.
Of course I could be reading too much into this and it’s
simply meant to show how ridiculous it could be if someone double did really appear
in to their life.
The film is a real curiosity piece, which needed a few pints
to debrief it afterwards. Sadly we have a race tomorrow. Pretty much like ‘Under
the Skin’ last week, this is a film that will divide opinion.
(Saturday 5th April)
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