The Devil's Double (2011)

The Devil's Double starring Dominic Cooper in a Bravura performance, playing both leads, he is astounding. Never for a moment do you think he is the same person, prosthetics and camera work aside he draws two very distinctive character's and then a third as he portrays the double imitating the Devil! Incredible! In case you have been holed up somewhere and know nothing of the story behind the movie, here goes. Latif Yahia (Cooper) is an Iraqi army officer taken from the front line during the Iran-Iraq war, he is brought to one of the palaces in Baghdad to meet an old schoolmate Uday Hussein (also Cooper) son of the president Saddam Hussein. In those times of war and uprising Uday needs a 'fidai' or bullet catcher, someone who he can send in when there is a threat to his safety or if he just doesn't feel like doing it himself.  Uday offers Latif the job, but Latif declines politely and I won't spoil the rest. Based on the true story of Latif Yahia and his best selling book of the same name,the Devil's Double sticks pretty much with the book apart from some scenes where Lee Tamahori the director took some poetic license. Don't expect it to be hugely political, it's not. Don't expect it to be historically accurate either, it's kinda there but the producers and director have said that they purposely didn't go down that road because they didn't want historians nit picking. Maybe they should have because from other reviews I have seen they're nit picking anyway! The Devil's Double is a great action packed thriller of a movie with fantastic performances from not one but two actors playing 'Doubles' Philip Quast (Saddam Hussein) also plays Saddam's Double Faoz Al-Emiri ( I think I got that right) and although you don't see too much of him you know instantly who he is when he's on screen! I liked it, a lot actually and I will be seeing it again and probably again, for all the controversy that has been kicked up I think it's going to be one of those movies that has lasting power and gains more and more credit as time goes on. Remember 'Scarface' wasn't such a big hit when it came out first, it was only over time that it garnered the Iconic status that it has now. Watch it, make up your own mind, the price of the ticket won't break the bank and you won't have to take out a second mortgage! But in Entertainment value it's cinema gold! Just look at the poster! 10/10 **********

Fmovies: I started loving this film within the first few seconds. This film has many redeeming features and I personally found it very enjoyable. Director Lee Tamahori brings a lot of the key Oscar-winning players of the Slumdog team back for this new film. Latif / Dominic Cooper The human connection element was most fascinating, as we wonder what we would do if placed in a similar situation ??? We are really "with" Latif on his journey, as we see him discover a reason to live and how his life perspective changes, not just how to get free from Uday Saddam. The Devil's Double, does not simply prove the point that humans will do whatever it takes to survive in dire circumstances. In fact, I might argue 9 of 10 people wouldn't do what Latif Yahia (Dominic Cooper) does in this film. The Devil's Double, A Definite must-see 10/10 stars.

Uday Hussein was a monster. The world knew this before he was killed, but after seeing The Devil's Double, the world has a good reminder just how horrible of a man he was. Uday would patrol the Baghdad streets in his sports car, kidnap school girls, rape them, murder them, and then have his goons dispose of the bodies. Nothing would ever happen to him because he hid behind daddy, Saddam Hussein. It appears he had no conscience; he proudly maintained videos of torture sessions, especially from underperforming Iraqi Olympic athletes. There are particular scenes in this film depicting crude torture techniques which are quite gut wrenching for the audience.

Dominic Cooper plays the dual role of Uday Hussein and the man 'taken' to be his body double, Latif Yahia. Cooper seamlessly disappears into these two separate men. He plays Uday with a high pitched voice, forever animated and crazy-eyed. Latif is laconic, thoughtful, and deeply troubled by the events occurring around him. This movie is based on actual events as written by Latif Yahia himself. Uday and Latif were classmates and later on, Uday remembers their similarities and has Latif plucked from the Iran/Iraq battlefield. This was not a job recommendation either; Latif either would become Uday's double or he and his family would be tortured and executed.

Latif could now enjoy all of Uday's luxuries, except his women. The inevitable involvement with a woman Latif should not have been socializing with is the film's one weak spot. Ludivine Sagnier plays Sarrab, a woman who Uday plucked from a club once and has yet to release from his grasp. Sagnier has starred in high quality work in the past both with Swimming Pool and 8 Women, but Sarrab's character does not fit very well here. The Devil's Double is about the relationship between Uday Hussein and Latif Yahia with the background of the first Persian Gulf War and Latif's desperate attempts to deal with the crumbling situation. There is not very much room from Sagnier and her character more often than not just gets in the way of what should be the central theme. For example, during the Baghdad bombing in the opening days of the 1991 war, instead of showing what Uday was doing or where he was hiding, the audience gets a scene between Latif and Sarrab. This was the wrong choice for both the screenwriter and director to make.

The director, Lee Tamahori, is a veteran action film director with credits including a James Bond film, Die Another Day, and other sporadic attempts with Along Came A Spider and the xXx sequel. This is not an action film though. It is a tough, psychological thriller and Tamahori does an admirable job with it except from the previously mentioned scene. The writer, Michal Thomas, has been around a long time but his work is mostly unknown except for his Ladyhawke screenplay and an episode of the Crash television series. He has adapted Latif Yahia's own novel and has done a forthright job of it.

Thank goodness Latif's novel was adapted for the big screen. One will read in the newspaper occasionally that Iraqi citizens miss Saddam Hussein's regime because at least the country was more stable than it is now and they had electricity and employment. When those thoughts spring up, they should be required to watch The Devil's Double to remind them of the insanity their country has moved away from.

The Devil's Double fmovies. Just got a chance to see The Devil's Double, great movie! As the first of it's kind I think that they did well, being Iraqi myself ( I left in the early 90's) I find it quite accurate, I can tell it wasn't actually filmed in Baghdad but then who really wants to go there!?  For so long I've listened to critics here in the US saying the movie is too flashy or over the top but I lived in Baghdad during that time, believe me we were more O.T.T than that! Iraq in the '80's had everything you could want, night clubs, bars, the best hotels in the world, Sheraton, Le Meridien etc, think of Dubai now, that was Baghdad then.  Anyway, I was an officer in a special unit in the palace. So I saw a lot of stuff, it was an open secret that Uday had a double, just like President Saddam Hussein. It makes me laugh when there's controversy after 20 years about whether Latif Yahia's story is true or not, I wonder who they're asking for an opinion, some guy who left Iraq when he was three and has never been to the middle-east let alone Iraq! Or worse still the men who Uday used to call 'friends',  it's of no importance really, Iraq as we knew it is gone, President Saddam is dead.  Watch and enjoy, historically accurate or not it's one hell of a ride! Oh yeah, if you've ever watched any interview of the real Latif Yahia, that's what Uday sounded like, not as squeaky as they make him out to be in the movie. To capture Uday's brutality they would have had to dial it up a notch or twelve, I had the displeasure of seeing him in action in reality. We had a job to do, pretending we weren't there.   Does it glorify Uday, I don't know, I think that's for each person to decide. Am I proud of Latif Yahia for bringing his story to the world, absolutely. Because for each person that tries to rubbish him there are twenty Iraqis who will defend him, he stood up against the regime and in the end he's the winner.

When they were filming Scarface I don't think they thought that the lines "Say hello to my little friends" was going to be absorbed into popular culture. Neither do I believe that Michael Thomas the screen writer of The Devil's Double think that the line above "I made you Latif, I MADE YOU !" would stick in the heads of not only me but my other friends who went to watch the Devil's Double last night. Based on the true story of Latif Yahia, the man forced to become the Fiday or body Double of Uday , Saddam Hussein's oldest and psychotic son. Both parts are played by actor Dominic Cooper ( Mamma Mia!, An Education, History Boys) a huge departure form his "softer" roles, where he usually plays a love interest or gentleman. He is so convincing, that you forget that you are watching one guy playing two roles, well actually three, Uday, Latif, Latif being Uday! It's confusing just saying it, try doing it! The film itself is loud, colorful and so '80's, not that I remember them very well but having seen a few '80's movies recently I marveled at where they got the shiny suits from! It is definitely a guy's movie, (but the girls will be captivated by Dominic in all his guises) and by that I mean fast cars, mustaches, cigars and lots of semi naked girls! There's a bit of a love triangle, Uday, Sarrab,(played by hot French actress Ludivine Sagnier, see The Swimming Pool) Latif. It's fast paced, action packed and does make you think, how could a guy survive that life? What were his options? Oh yeah, a bit of techie stuff, it was filmed on R.E.D the new digital system, see if you can tell the difference in picture quality. I enjoyed it, my bro's enjoyed it. See for yourself.

Saw this movie today at Berlinale and was pleasantly surprised that as I walked out of it thought to myself that it's been a really long time since I saw a decent movie like this. Before I looked Uday/Latif up on the internet I had doubts about how close the plot was to reality, turned out to be quite interesting showing that, well everything in the movie has (kind of) happened. Makes it disturbing to know on a different level.

The depiction of Uday's psychotic character throughout the movie seems very real and does not spare or cheat the viewers any disturbing torture/abuse scenes. Some people might dislike this, some maybe even enjoy it.

That being said I liked the overall acting, both main and lesser characters did a good job. And on a side note: i found the movie sets and props were quite awesome.

btw: I can still remember the news of Uday's and Qusai's deaths back in 2003, but that meant little to me at that time. At least now i know.