The Devil's Double [Blu-Ray]

Under the bold direction of Lee Tamahori, the true story of Uday Saddam Hussein (the spoiled rotten son of the former Iraqi dictator and a sadistic loose cannon whose rampage of torture, rape and murder in the pre-Gulf War days made him infamous and legendary) is turned into a gluttonously biopic cum action film, striving for the same shamelessly over-indulgence as Brian De Palma's Scarface, but grounded in the same absurd realities of The Last King of Scotland. Dominic Cooper is simply delicious in the dual role of Uday and his double, Latif, who in real life was an old school chum of Uday's, but was kidnapped from his family and held hostage for years to be his political double. As Uday, Cooper plays the bombastic psychopath with high energy, while as Latif, he is able to dial down his rage into a nail-biting internalization of his emotions. Though the physical difference in character is represented only by Uday's buckteeth and combed down haircut, Cooper's subtle differences in performance are more than enough for us to distinguish each character. While there's some astonishingly gory violence displayed on screen, Tamahori cranks it up until it's spilling over for comedic purposes. Mondo sex, drugs, bullets and blood are taken to their extreme to contrast the unbelievable disregard for humanity that occurred in real life. However grotesque, Tamahori challenges us to treat Uday Hussein as entertainment, and succeeds. Standard fare special features include featurettes on Dominic Cooper's inspired dual character role, the real life double, who consulted on the film, and a general making-of featurette explaining Tamahori's creative vision. Tamahori also provides insightful and informative audio commentary, something consistent with most of the film's he commentates on.