Movie Review - The Double

The Double (2011)

Starring Richard Gere, Topher Grace, Odette Yustman, and Martin Sheen

Directed by Michael Brandt

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

Although imdb lists The Double as getting a theatrical release last year, I certainly never heard anything about this until I saw some commercials promoting its appearance on Blu-Ray.  With a promise of political intrigue (and the ease of streaming availability), I figured why not give it a shot.  However, I soon discovered the reason this was buried at the box office is because The Double simply isn't very good.

Richard Gere is Paul Shepherdson, a retired CIA agent who spent much of his life tracking down a group of Russian bad guys led by an ominous assassin named Cassius.  Having seemingly taken down the bad Russians, Paul spends his days (creepily) watching Little League games outside of Washington, D.C.  When a prominent senator gets murdered in the same style as Cassius's killings, CIA director Tom Highland (Martin Sheen) calls Paul back into the game partnering him up with young FBI agent Ben Geary (Topher Grace).  Ben, a young expert on Cassius, soon begins to see that Paul has all the characteristics of the Russian baddie and slowly uncovers that Paul may be hiding a huge secret from the US government.

Sound moderately interesting, right?  It's not.  The "big reveals" aren't that exciting and the multiple twists thrown in at the film's end seem forced rather than natural to the story.  Gere and Grace are fine, but neither are given much to do and they don't provide a whole lot of charisma to liven things up.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+