By
Graig Uhlin
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Double Take punches up comedy, lacks consistent plot
Grade: C+
Back in 1995, when "The Usual Suspects" came on the scene, the film's twist ending about the true identity of Kaiser Soze universally surprised audiences and, in the tradition of all good things in Hollywood, was repeatedly copycatted by less-deserving projects.
While plot twists have always been around, post-"Suspects" they became a favorite device of movie scribes - a shortcut to keeping viewers interested in a film they should have the better sense not to see.
There have been exceptions, yet "Double Take," an action-comedy written and directed by George Gallo, is not one of them, as its convoluted plot features more twists and turns than a Gordian knot.
The film's narrative is more complicated than it needed to be, and generally left audiences wondering "Huh?" Basically, if indeed it can even be boiled down to a few sentences, Wall Street investment counselor Daryl Chase (Orlando Jones) - apparently the shortcut for characterizations of Wall Street types is to have them use words like "fiduciary" and speak very quickly about market aspects - gets framed for a money laundering scheme involving his own company, Mexican drug cartels and a small, white dog.
He's running from the law in order to prove his own innocence and meets up with the loud and outrageous Freddy Tiffany (the equally loud and outrageous Eddie Griffin), an unshakable disturbance who turns up at every point on Chase's flight. Tiffany seems willing to help Chase, but the latter questions the reason for his assistance.
In fact, Chase questions everyone. The way Gallo has constructed his script is that no one can be trusted - not the CIA agents who save Chase's life at one point, not his own boss and certainly not Tiffany - resulting in a film laden with more paranoia than even one of the "conspiracy" episodes of "The X-Files." Each plot twist sheds a new light on yet another character, sometimes even reverting back to a previous assumption. Characters' identities in the aptly-titled "Double Take" flip-flop more than Florida (old joke, sorry).
At first, these twists and turns kept the movie fresh. The mysteriousness of Tiffany and Chase's increasing paranoia provided a suspenseful thrust for the film, but as the twists became more frequent and stretched the limits of believability, the movie felt tedious, even bordering on self-mockery. But this film is not mocking "Usual Suspects" endings. It seems to take itself completely seriously, but its audience, however, does not.
This is unfortunate because "Double Take" has a lighter, funnier side that works to partly redeem the film from its more serious underpinnings. Tiffany is a ghetto-talking badass, and Griffin plays it up to the fullest extremes, reveling in his own "Whasssup" charm. Even funnier still is when polar opposites Chase and Tiffany switch roles, and mock each other. Gallo even manages to infuse the comedy with deft racial commentary about class and appearance, although this aspect of the film never reaches its full potential. Had it done so, that would truly have been a twist worth waiting for.
Graig Uhlin can be reached at catalyst@wildcat.arizona.edu.
