There just aren’t enough Kafka-esque romantic comedies, but in the droll “The Double,” a lonely office drone must figure out a way to get the girl and prove he exists at the same time.
A perfectly bewildered Jesse Eisenberg plays both loser Simon James and Lothario James Simon, a blackmailer who commandeers Simon’s apartment for trysts and takes credit for his office work with Simon’s boss (Wallace Shawn), while threatening to steal his would-be girlfriend (Mia Wasikowska).
Based on a lesser-known Dostoyevsky work, Brit director Richard Ayoade’s breathtakingly realized oddity will appeal to fans of David Lynch and the comic surrealism of Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil.”