Directed by Lee Tamahori. Starring Dominic Cooper, Ludivine Sagnier,Raad Rawi, Philip Quast, Mimoun Oaissa, Khalid Laith, Dar Salim, Nasser Memarzia 16 cert, gen release, 108 min
IT'S ABOUT time some bright film-maker offered us a serious study of the outrages that went on in the court of Saddam Hussein. Unfortunately this is not that film. The Devil's Double, a garish onslaught of bad behaviour, comes across like a mash-up between Scarfaceand The Prisoner of Zenda. Juiced up by a pair of stunning performances from Dominic Cooper, it is as gorily entertaining as it is cavalier with the facts. Do not attend on a full stomach.
Somewhat short on plot, The Devil's Doubleestablishes its discordant melody early on and continues to offer variations on that theme. Some time before the first Gulf War, Uday Hussein, Saddam's near-psychopathic son, forces a former schoolmate, Latif Yahia, to act as his double. Following plastic surgery, Latif begins attending official events while the drunken heir apparent forces his attentions on Baghdad's blameless virgins.
You couldn’t say there are many nuances to Uday. He is simply an id-driven monster. But Cooper, switching between the two leads with smooth grace, makes such a repulsive sprite of the beast that the film remains gripping throughout.
Seen kidnapping schoolgirls, disembowelling party guests and supervising the torture of unsuccessful Olympic athletes, Uday emerges as a pathetic child granted the power to act out his worst urges. More than anything else, one is reminded of The Squire of Gothos, that Star Trekepisode in which an alien infant, inhabiting the body of a foolish aristocrat, wreaks unthinking havoc on the Enterprise's bemused crew.
The Devil's Double, directed with competent, blurred flourishes by the erratic Lee Tamahori, shouldn't be taken too seriously. But, as experiments in inappropriate exploitation go, it will do well enough.
