At this moment Dominic Cooper is the talk of Hollywood for his dual role in The Devil's Double, a film which has him playing both Saddam Hussein's reckless son, Uday, and his reluctant body double Latif Yahia. And all the hype is well deserved. He propelled what could have been a depressing and awkward movie into the sleeper of the year.
The movie begins when Latif is summoned to Saddam's palace and faced with an impossible request - to be Uday's 'fiday' - his body double, or have his family condemned to death. In a world entrenched in betrayal and corruption knowing who to trust becomes a matter of life or death for Latif, as he battles to escape from his forced existence.
Latif's autobiographical novel The Devil's Double became a bestseller following the 2003 invasion of Iraq which ended with the capture of Saddam Hussein and the death of his sons Uday and Qusay in a firefight with a Special Forces Task Force in Mosul. The story is set during the events that led up to the first Gulf War in a Baghdad.
A first glance, a bio-pic about Uday Husseun’s body double sounds like two hours of visual torture – and the film even opens with and features spurts of actual Iraq war television footage. In fact, this reviewer was dreading the screening of the film so much that he started manifesting reasons to not show up. But in the end, the professional prevailed and took his seat for the only movie that haunted him for weeks. It’s such a good film, in fact, that it leaves you wondering if the voyeurism into Uday and Latif’s story is one of life’s truly guilty pleasures.
It’s a violent film, as one would expect from a Saddam-era Iraq movie, but the violence is used to show the insanity and torture that Uday forced on his dad’s people. Cooper is astonishing as both the lavish and wacked-out Uday and the calmer and caring Latif. Never before has an actor captured a dual role with such emotion, power and awe. Cooper is pretty much seen throughout the entire film, sometimes as both Uday and Latif at the same time. He separates the two so well that one can easily forget that it’s the same man playing both parts. Add this to his other current role in Captain America and you have Hollywood’s hottest actor.
Although the film is raw and edgy in subject matter, it is a polished piece with great cinematography, superior casting and visually stunning locations. Shot mostly in Malta, the film shows lavish parties, fast cars and golden palaces – albeit to show the wilder side of Uday.
It was also nice to see a fairly neutral view of the Gulf War. The movie would have been a waste had it been used as an American patriotic flag waver, instead of the story of Latif. Hats off to director Lee Tamahori (Die Another Day) for taking a controversial topic and turning it into a masterful film.
Read more: The Devil's Double: Movie Review | Canada's Music Magazine - RockStar Weekly http://www.rockstarweekly.com/the-devils-double-movie-review.html#ixzz1TfdFVrgv