Double Identity (2009)

Better Late Then Never

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Kilmer phones this one in. He must have had a few free weeks between theatre engagements and thought a free few weeks in Europe would be nice. Though he obviously spent too much time at the hotel banquet table. At one laughable point he's taken in by one of the groups who offer to help change his identity. Kilmer's picture is on the front page. What do they do? They give him a change of clothes and send him back out on the street with the same long hair and beard. Kilmer must have needed it for his next role.Isabella Miko is probably the most well-developed character of the movie, which isn't saying much. Her loyalty throughout the movie is ambiguous. She carries her role with some energy, more so than everyone else, who come across as gray shadows in comparison. Maybe its her blonde hair or her cleavage.The various agencies / groups / organizations plotting against one another are unclear. They sport varying accents and speak different foreign languages. Are they government / private / terrorist? Some carry badges, but are they real? In the end, you figure out that a private company is currently buying diamonds from a "cartel" and is offered an alternative deal. A shadowy group offers them access to a government minister who can give them a pipeline to diamonds mined within his country's borders at discount prices. This shadowy group is competing with the cartel, who is determined to stop the deal. Several characters appear to work for more than one side, but which side is not always clear.

The premise itself is silly if you think the reason the girl, Katrine, helps Kilmer's character is that quick kiss at the start. I thought she only helped him because she didn't want an innocent guy killed just so the cartel can make more money. What is silly is that a guy smart enough to become a doctor is dumb enough to do absolutely nothing to change his appearance even after he sees his photo on the front page of the newspaper. No shaving of the beard, no haircut, no hair dye, in fact he doesn't even change out of his tuxedo jacket until someone tells him to do so. Most 10-year-olds are far better at hide and seek than his character.I found the use of cell phones in the early 1990s to be so dumb it was funny and about what you'd expect of such a lackluster story. Some filmmakers seem to think that if you don't have a good story it will go unnoticed if you add enough twists and turns. Not so in this case. Kilmer didn't even try to do well or even act interested. The performances from everyone else ranged from good to excellent and the actress playing Katrine will hopefully go on to much better films than this, she's certainly pretty and talented enough. Kilmer seems to be following in Steven Segal's footsteps but if he dieted and worked harder he could still hope for better.

At first I'm thinking this movie, DOUBLE IDENTITY, is more like this year's Liam Neeson flick, UNKNOWN, what with the possibility that Val Kilmer's doctor character has amnesia, or a split personality. A few minutes later plot developments show that DOUBLE IDENTITY is more exactly similar to THE TOURIST, as it becomes clear the doctor is what he says he is, and he's simply helping out the damsel in distress, played by Izabella Miko. Do Kilmer and Miko share more on-screen chemistry than Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie? Probably, but that really is not saying much. Are the plot twists of DOUBLE IDENTITY any more plausible than those of THE TOURIST? No, but at least not as much money was wasted in this film on pyrotechnics and Venetian scenery. One of the main faults I had viewing DOUBLE IDENTITY was a sense of deja vu; having seen this all before, along the lines of something Graham Greeney--maybe THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE. Certainly another quibble some viewers may share is that the ending of DOUBLE IDENTITY feels quite forced and rushed, with the loose ends tied up just a little too neatly. The denouement even has a made-for-TV movie-of-the-week quality; you almost expect to see Tom Selleck come strutting down that sidewalk!

This was oddly humorous, much like 'Hardwired' (another Kilmer gem). It has so many mistakes, like how the 1992 setting has cars from past 2000, and the characters have cell phones. Kilmer is bored, he looks likes he had one too many the whole movie.The story is simple, and had some promise, American Doctor (this is Kilmer) rescues Bulgarian woman (Isabella Miko) and gets in some trouble.Kilmer stumbles around like he's drunk. He's put on some weight, and I thought he was like a bumbling comic relief character. Only he was the main character. This made it kinda funny.If you could use a laugh this might be good. Mind numbing way to spend an hour and a half.