The Double
Simon James (Jesse Eisenberg) is a young Canadian man living in London, England who exits a tube train, gets his briefcase caught in the door and loses it because the handle breaks off and the train rushes off. Going into work, he is forced to start signing in without his proper ID badge, which is still in his briefcase. Once inside the workstation, he tries to talk his boss (Wallace Shawn) into using some ideas for the business. While walking, Simon learns he will be tutoring his boss's daughter, Melanie (Yasmin Paige).While visiting his mother (Phyllis Somerville) in a nursing home, he encounters another resident who claims he is "not right". Simon then goes to his apartment and spies on a co-worker he admires, Hannah (Mia Wasikowska), who lives in the apartment diagonally opposite his, using a telescope set up in front of his window. Simon notices Hannah ripping and throwing away art and retrieves it. Bringing it to his apartment, he reassembles and admires it.One night, Simon sees a man jump from a ledge the floor above Hannah; the man dies upon impact. Simon talks to two police detectives, who question him and explain that if the man had jumped a few feet to the right, he would have bounced off of an awning and landed on the cement, mangled but able to survive with immediate medical attention.Simon takes Hannah to a restaurant, where he gets a call from his mother. When he returns to the table he had been sitting at, he sees Hannah is gone but in a note she left she says she will see him later. Simon then trades his television in for money and buys a gift for Hannah.At work, Simon hears his boss talking to a new person and goes out to see James Simon (Jesse Eisenberg in a dual role), who looks identical to him. Simon faints, and, upon waking up sees everyone crowded around him, not noticing the similarities between him and James. Simon and James go to a bar, where Simon bumps into a drunk man who threatens to fight. James headbutts the man and knocks him out before he can engage. Simon and James run off and get on a train, where Simon explains his love for Hannah and says he feels invisible. Simon then brings James, who has fallen asleep, to his apartment and admires their similarities.As James starts getting more respect at work, Hannah reveals she wants to go on a date with him. On the date, Simon pretends to be James with the real James telling him what to do and say via earpiece. When Simon becomes nervous, the two swap places and, upon retrieving Hannah, who has tried to leave, James kisses her in the middle of the restaurant as Simon watches. When taking a test for James, the two swap places again and James meets Melanie, who is seduced by his charm.Fed up, Simon manages to call Hannah as if he is James and gets her to go to James's apartment - which is above hers - when James and Melanie are together. This ends James and Hannah's relationship and makes James furious. James blackmails Simon by saying he either gives James the key to his apartment or their boss sees dirty photos of "Simon" and Melanie. Simon gives up his key. When Hannah asks if she can use Simon's apartment to spy and see if James is cheating on her with anyone else, James says no because she is becoming obsessed. The truth is, James has Simon's only key. This turns Hannah against him. Going home to confront James, James tackles Simon into a wall and lightly grazes his throat with a knife.The next day Simon gets angry when James tells a joke to a circle of employees, all who are laughing along. Simon accuses James of being an imposter, having stolen Simon's face. Simon has a tantrum, yelling many expletives. This results in Simon being fired. He then goes into his home with a new spare key and writes a suicide note, intending to kill himself by jumping from his window. Looking across the street, he sees Hannah on her bed, unconscious. Simon brings her to the hospital where he learns she overdosed on pills and miscarried from a sexual encounter with James. He takes her home where she suggests he kill himself. In her apartment she goes through the pockets of Simon's jacket and discovers he has kept a scrapbook of her trashed art.Simon goes home and hears via his answering machine that his mother has died. He runs to the funeral and punches James at the burial ceremony. In doing this he realizes that he and James develop the same injuries. In self-defence, a priest knocks Simon into his mother's open grave with a shovel. Simon awakes later beside the filled in grave and runs to Hannah and tells her he wants to be visible and noticed. Simon handcuffs a sleeping James to his bed and calls the suicide department and tells them someone is jumping to their death. Simon goes out on the ledge above Hannah's apartment and walks to the right before jumping, when James awakens and looks through Simon's telescope to see Simon wave goodbye. Simon hits the awning and lands with severe injuries. Hannah runs to him and an ambulance arrives. James bleeds to death in the apartment. In the back of the ambulance with Hannah and the Colonel, the Colonel says Simon is special and Simon replies with a smile on his face: "I'd like to think I'm pretty unique."
comedy, neo noir, suicidal, plot twist, psychedelic, romantic