There was a time when a movie with Richard Gere meant mega-box office success. It seems that Hollywood has taken to releasing his pictures much along the lines they do with aging actresses, delivering them straight to DVD rather than the big screen. That's a shame since Gere has rarely turned in a bad performance and the movies bypassing the big screen are often better than movies that make it there. THE DOUBLE is a good example.
Gere portrays Paul Shepherdson, an ex-C.I.A. called out of retirement by his old boss, Tom Highland (Martin Sheen). It seems that years ago Paul was the lead agent in charge of tracking down a top Soviet assassin, a man known only as Cassius. When a U.S. Senator is killed using the same techniques as Cassius, it is believed that he has returned. Paul insists that he killed him years ago but no body was found.
When Paul attends a joint meeting of the C.I.A. and the F.B.I., he asks why anyone would believe this is the work of Cassius. The man who brought this to the F.B.I.'s attention is their agent Ben Geary (Topher Grace). Geary has studied every piece of evidence concerning Cassius going to far as to write his thesis in college about the case. It is his belief that the recent murder shows signs that Cassius has returned.
Paul and Geary are assigned to work together to find the evidence to prove or disprove that Cassius has returned and if he has to find him before he kills again. The pair follow up on clues and contacts in the hopes of finding anyone that can lead them to Cassius or at least information that would do so. And here's where a plot twist arrives early. I wouldn't actually call this a spoiler since it was revealed in the trailer, but the identity of Cassius is shown early on when he kills an ex-comrade that was in his group of assassins that Paul and Geary interview. Paul is Cassius.
So now the whole mystery takes a different angle. Instead of two agents trying to find a killer the pair has one trying to find him and the other trying to remain hidden. And if Cassius wasn't the murderer of the Senator than who was? It is these questions that make this thriller more interesting than one would have expected.
Shootouts, interviews and betrayals are found around every corner. Paul gets to meet Geary's family and warns his wife that the man her husband is trying to find is deadly and that it could put their family in danger. But Geary doggedly pursues each lead in the hopes of finding his man.
So I said there was a spoiler right? Well perhaps not quite so. As I said, that was revealed in the trailer for the movie. There remains a twist in the story as it ends that will catch you completely off guard, not something easily done these days. And that's what makes this thriller one worth watching, along with the great performances.
As I stated early on, there are so many films these days that make it to the theater and you wonder just who the folks behind it knew to get it released. At the same time a decent thriller like this one goes unnoticed. But that's the beauty of DVD. Movies that could have gone unnoticed have a chance to be seen and this is one of those movies that deserve it.
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