The Double: Film Review

NY --Richard Gere is on icy-awesome autopilot within the Double, a barely warm dish of Cold War leftovers that shows its hands too soon, then works itself into an progressively implausible tangle of knotty plot developments without ever mustering much intensity. The pedestrian espionage thriller marks a physically capable but uninspired pointing debut for film writer Michael Brandt, who composed the script with regular writing partner Derek Haas. That team's previous collaborations have incorporated the muscular Western remake3:10 to Yumaand visceral high-octane action fare 2 Fast 2 Furious and Wanted, each of which achieved positive results from the sly spontaneity beneath all of the revved-up, outlandish hyper-violence. It's disappointing then that Brandt would decide to step behind your camera with material that may have been caught from the bottom drawer, its tortuous plotting concurrently half-baked and overcooked. A tired tale of covert elements inside the CIA and FBI, the film tries to slap a gritty edge along with a modern veneer of national-security paranoia onto a story with echoes of vintage Ernest Forsyth or John le Carre. Gere plays Paul Shepherdson, an experienced CIA operative summoned back from retirement by his supervisor (Martin Sheen) once the murder of the U.S. Senator with business ties to Russia suggests the return of the lengthy-inactive Soviet assassin, codenamed Cassius. Shepherdson spent two decades monitoring Cassius, getting rid of the killer's vicious hit squad but never finding the guy themself, who's thought to become dead. Action-hungry youthful FBI rookie Ben Geary (Topher Sophistication) does not buy that theory. He authored his Harvard Masters thesis around the search for Cassius and will get combined with the reluctant Shepherdson around the restarted analysis. Considering the fact that the identity of Cassius is revealed within the trailer for that Double, it shojuld not be a surprise the movie also spills that secret only a half-hour in. That leaves little to occupy the crowd as Geary pores over old situation files, while Shepherdson circles the ambitious upstart and the family with ominous alerts that not good may come of approaching a callous killer. More convoluted than psychologically complex, the film looks after a second large reveal up its sleeve for that final reel. But with that point there is this type of pileup of movie-ant plot contrivances it's prone to provoke more eye-comes than gasps. Gere puts your time and effort in to the role it merits, which would be to say hardly any. He's performed versions about this steely-smooth vessel of immorality and deceptiveness numerous occasions before, with far superior results. Mike Figgis' very sleazy (as well as subversively misogynistic, homophobic and all sorts of-round misanthropic) 1990 thriller, Internal Matters, is really a notable example. This time around, he mostly looks bored, which does not help the lack of chemistry between your male leads. Sophistication lacks the gravitas to visualize chief-sleuth responsibilities in order to persuasively ground the shock twist from the final act. And the happy-home existence with adoring wife (Odette Yustman) and cute kids is simply too perfunctorily drew to create us worry about their endangerment. There's some momentary pleasure in watching Stephen Moyer glower and snarl with relish like a reptilian Russian thug who helps make the actor's vampire king Bill Compton on True Bloodstream appear just like a puppy. But almost anything else relating to this routine thriller, from the clever pictures to the churning techno score, is unremarkable. Opens March. 28 (Image Entertainment) Production: Hyde Park Entertainment, in colaboration with Imagenation Abu Dhabi Producers: Ashok Amritraj, Patrick Aiello, Derek Haas, Andrew Deane Director: Michael Brandt Screenwriters: Michael Brandt, Derek Haas Cast: Richard Gere, Topher Sophistication, Stana Katic, Stephen Moyer, Martin Sheen, Odette Yustman Director of photography: Jeffrey Kimball Production designer: Giles Masters Costume designer: Aggie Guerard Rodgers Music: John Debney Editor: Steve Mirkovich PG13 rating 98 minutes Richard Gere Topher Sophistication Derek Haas Michael Brandt