MovieChat Forums > The Devil's Double (2011) Discussion > Amazing premise... based on fact... and ...

Amazing premise... based on fact... and they blew it!

posted 13 years ago by filmklassik
9 replies | jump to latest

The film was meandering... with no narrative "spine" to speak of... and therefore no forward momentum.

I wasn't looking for LETHAL WEAPON, of course (it's not that kind of story) but this should have been a tightly woven narrative -- and it wasn't.

It was boring. They somehow took a can't-miss true-life premise and made it boring.

[–] bron-tay 13 years ago

Hollywood . . . is there anything they *can't* do?

~~~~~~~
Think cynical thoughts.

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] filmklassik 13 years ago

Wow. I'm always amazed at the disparity of opinion about movies... and everything else for that matter. But that's the way of the world.

Case in point: Except for the ending, you found THE DEVIL'S BROTHER to be great, and of course many other people agree with you.

I, on the other hand, could not stop looking at my watch.

[–] Hancockenstein 13 years ago

are you saying a movie has to have a non-straying formula for you to keep watching? because many people don't, it's just entertainment

[–] mirkea 13 years ago

I agree with this guy 100%

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] macktan894 13 years ago

I had been looking forward to this film and was deeply disappointed in the experience. Uday Hussein is played as a psychotic clown; Lafit, his double, turns up his nose at it all. The film would have been better had it explored Uday's diabolical mentality and showed the madness of having to emulate it. But it was one stupid scene after another with characters you never got to know and didn't want to know.

This could have been a good film.

[–] filmfancy 13 years ago

Uday Hussein is played as a psychotic clown; Lafit, his double, turns up his nose at it all. The film would have been better had it explored Uday's diabolical mentality and showed the madness of having to emulate it. But it was one stupid scene after another with characters you never got to know and didn't want to know.

I agree. Latif's character was not fully explored. He just seemed to stand there watching Uday's madness. In later scenes when he defies Uday it's not really believable because he's been so passive before.

This isn't Dominic Cooper's fault; it's the screenwriter's and director's weak handling of the story. Seems like they were more interested in providing shocking or violent scenes (Uday's abduction and rape of young girls, plus the bride) rather than psychologically insightful ones.

There was too much focus on Uday's scenes of madness rather than on the psychological impact they had on Latif.

"And all the pieces matter"

[–] psychonaut25 13 years ago

I thought it was extremely, highly entertaining...I just wish they'd stuck to a more realistic rendition. The director himself made a point of saying, this is a fiction movie, even though it's based on a true story...I wish it'd been less loosely based, though. I wish they'd made a point to make it realistic and not fictional...not that it was a bad movie (it was good) but simply because, SO much of it is based on fact, that to make it a work of fiction is a stupid idea IMO.