This story that was necessary to tell was told well. I remember both Gulf wars. I remember the atrocities told about Saddam's son, Uday Hussein. Seeing them re-enacted is another thing.I didn't recognize Dominic Cooper from the only other vehicle in which I saw him, Fleming. He was superb then. He was better here, playing these two roles.He showed evil when he portrayed Uday Hussein.He showed compassion and turmoil when he portrayed the double, Latif Yahia.I await the coming release (2017?) of the sequel, The Devil's Revenge, again based on a book by Latif Yahia, but this time also co-screenwriter.

How dumb am I #1: I waited for the credits to find out who played Uday - great performance. Then I saw it was the same actor as Latif. OMG! Amazing.How dumb am I #2: I thought this was a true story, so in the final scenes in Malta and the bazaar I was thinking "unlikely, but such is life".It's a good thriller and character study. Uday is like Caligula, but Latif is a bit dull. The girlfriend seemed a bit random, especially in the end. And the sex and violence should have been more explicit - instead it's quite tasteful.Loved the music all the way through.Overall I think this is a bit simple, because it should have had more interesting things to say on identity and used the doubleness to explore the story.

I had high expectations of this one, but they were dashed when I noticed that the director was Lee Tamahori, the man responsible for creating the cheesiest Bond film ever made (DIE ANOTHER DAY). THE DEVIL'S DOUBLE does look promising on paper, telling an unusual story in an unusual setting, but unfortunately the execution is sub-par and the whole thing turns out to be a waste of time.The story features lead actor Dominic Cooper playing two separate roles. One is as the egomaniac son of Saddam Hussein, the other his bodyguard and (conveniently) exact double. Unfortunately, neither character is very interesting; the bodyguard is a dull, wooden type of character, and Saddam's son is a psycho. Characterisation is limited to those two points and we never learn more from beginning to end.The script is very poor, failing to bring gravitas or depth to the storyline. We learn that Uday (Saddam's son) is a psycho at the outset, and that his double despises him for his actions, but that whole premise is dragged out for an hour and a half with repetitive sequences that are mere variations on what's come previously. Sure, there are moments of greatness - usually the flashes of unflinching violence, both sexual and physical - but the viewer never feels embroiled in the tale, and the ending is a particular letdown. Sad to say but THE DEVIL'S DOUBLE is a poor man's SCARFACE and ultimately a shallow, one-dimensional experience.

I did not expect to enjoy this film. I decided to give it a go as a way of increasing my knowledge of the world and recent past events (or rather decreasing my ignorance), but then got so much more out of it.The basic premise reminded me of The Parent Trap. Not so surprisingly, however, Cooper does a much better job than Lohan of keeping each character distinct. Our warmth towards Latif grows in the same measure as our disgust towards Uday.The only difficulty characterwise is in understanding why Uday behaves the way he does. But I guess this is what makes us hate him rather than pity him. The fact that he's a complete mamma's boy is a nice touch, however, and adds a little bit more texture to the character.Like The Parent Trap, there's some mild humour running through. Unlike The Parent Trap, the violence is anything but mild.So by the end of the film I have fulfilled my objectives of learning more about the world (Iraq-Kuwait war, Hussein family) and seen a moving film with good characters in the bargain.