I could take or leave Jesse Eisenberg if I’m honest – he’s always been a low rate Michael Cera to me – but the combination of British comedy maestro extraordinaire Richard Ayoade and everyone’s favorite Russian dweller in the depths of human sorrow, Fyodor Dostoevsky, just about has me bursting in the trouser area. Ayoade’s adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s short story The Double, concerning a man who encounters his doppelganger who then goes on to take over his life, may not be quite the popular hit of his previous film Submarine, but it should still be great nonetheless.
What, you need proof? Well, StudioCanal have just released a new trailer for the movie, arriving a couple of months before it opens in the UK on April 4th. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and is due for a limited US release on May 9th, no doubt going wide if it does well.
It looks like Ayoade has managed to maintain the same deft touch for vaguely period detail that he’s known for, marking himself out almost as a British Wes Anderson in terms of attention to detail and off-kilter timing. Except, with none of the excess staginess that Anderson often suffers from.
Besides Jesse Eisenberg, The Double also stars Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland) and Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine). It has a stellar cast, a stellar director, comes from stellar source material, and is already getting rave reviews. As of right now, the film is shaping up to be one of Eisenberg’s best efforts yet, maybe even better than Camp Hell.