The Double (4 Stars)

This film is based on Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel "The Double", but its adaptation is much closer to the style of Franz Kafka.

The film's main character, Simon James, works in a large impersonal office which specialises in data entry. The computers are in the style of the mid 1970's, but many other details in the film are anachronistic, so that it could take place at any time from the 1960's to today. It's a dark and gloomy world in which we never see daylight. Simon has been working in the office for seven years, but nobody has ever noticed him. He has a crush on his colleague Hannah in the photocopying department, but he is too shy to tell her. She lives in the building opposite, so he watches her every evening through a telescope.

One day a new employee joins the company, James Simon, who looks identical to Simon James. At least, he looks identical to Simon and to us, the viewers, because the two men are played by the same actor and wear identical clothing. The people in the office fail to see a resemblance. James coaches Simon in how to date Hannah, in exchange for Simon doing James' work. As soon becomes apparent, James is exploiting Simon in order to win a quick promotion. James even begins an affair with Hannah.

This is a very unsettling film, but it has a bizarre Kafkaesque beauty. It's worth watching more than once.