Devil’s Double

Actors:  Dominic Cooper, Ludivine Sagnier, Raad Rawi, Philip Quast

Rating:  7 out of 10, this was a fairly entertaining movie, rented from Netflix, supposedly recounting the true adventures of an Iraqi forced to serve as Uday Hussein’s (Saddam’s less than sane son) body double.  The plot turns out to be more of an ego piece for the guy who obviously portrayed himself in the most heroic way possible.  The movie was interesting, if only for a look inside the depraved life of pre-invasion Iraq.  I don’t know if this ever happened the way the movie claims but the performances here were solid, especially Cooper in a dual role.  I also liked the fact that it didn’t descend into a polemic about the war but simply explored the decadent life of Uday which has been fairly well chronicled.  Sagnier was almost unrecognizable as an Iraqi and is not aging well.  I first saw her in Swimming Pool and thought she was going to be something special – not so much.
MVP:  Cooper as both Uday and his double skillfully made them seem like completely different people