{"id":401386,"date":"2022-01-29T01:13:36","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T22:13:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/dual-is-a-battle-between-stellar-premise-and-wobbly-execution\/"},"modified":"2022-01-29T01:13:36","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T22:13:36","slug":"dual-is-a-battle-between-stellar-premise-and-wobbly-execution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/dual-is-a-battle-between-stellar-premise-and-wobbly-execution\/","title":{"rendered":"#’Dual’ is a Battle Between Stellar Premise and Wobbly Execution"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#’Dual’ is a Battle Between Stellar Premise and Wobbly Execution<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

     <span class=\"mx-1\">Karen Gillan struggles against herself in the latest from the director of \u2018Faults\u2019 and \u2018The Art of Self Defense.\u2019<\/span>\n<\/p><div id=\"\">\n\n\n\n                <figure class=\"sf-entry-featured-media<\/a> \">\n            <img width=\"800\" height=\"420\" src=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/dual.jpg\" class=\"articlethumb wp-post-image\" alt=\"Karen Gillan and Karen Gillan in Dual\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/dual.jpg 800w, https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/dual-768x403.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\"\/>                                    <p>\n                    <span class=\"sf-entry-flag sf-entry-flag-creditline\">RLJE Films<\/span>\n\n                        <\/figure>\n\n    <!-- START BYLINE -->\n    <div class=\"row align-items-center justify-content-center my-4 text-center medium dark-gray\">\n        By\u00a0Rob Hunter\u00a0\u00b7 Published on January 28th, 2022 \n        <\/div>\n    <!-- END BYLINE -->\n\n    <em>This review of Riley Stearns\u2019 Dual is part of our 2022 Sundance Film Festival coverage. For more reviews and essays, visit our Sundance tab.<\/em>\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n
We know the stated end goal of Riley Stearns<\/strong>\u2018 Dual<\/em><\/strong> in its opening scene, and it comes with literal end goals. A man stands on a football field, a table of weapons before him, and at the other end stands his double with the very same table \u2014 and only one of them will be leaving the field alive. Of course, it\u2019s not a promise of what\u2019s to come but a mere suggestion, and therein rests the film\u2019s biggest hurdle as it takes a fantastically intriguing premise and fumbles in its performances and final steps.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the future, but also now, and a technology<\/a> exists with which to clone yourself to make it easier for your loved ones to go on living after you\u2019ve stopped. Clones are allowed only for the terminally ill as two of the same person in the world is a recipe for chaos, but Sarah (Karen Gillan<\/strong>) finds a hiccup in the plan after being given less than a year to live. She buys a clone, allows it to ingratiate herself into Sarah\u2019s life via her boyfriend and mother and bank account \u2014 and then discovers that her illness has gone into remission. The clone challenges Sarah\u2019s decommission order and instead employs her legal right to a dual, and now Sarah, a woman who had given up on life even before she was told hers was ending, finally finds a reason to stay alive.<\/p>\n
Dual<\/em> features the kind of setup that seems like it would feel right at home on an episode of Black Mirror<\/em> as technology and societal whims collide with grimly entertaining results, but in addition to stretching the premise to feature length Stearns is only half interested in taking that route. To be sure, his script<\/a> does take jabs at the health care system, corporate liabilities, and more, but the focus is more on one individual\u2019s need for growth. That\u2019s fine on paper, but while the initial building blocks are here they come tumbling down well before the end credits roll.<\/p>\n
Stearns has directed his cast to act with flat inflection, a robotic delivery that leaves no distinction between human and double \u2014 and leaves very little room for emotional connection. While similar efforts work in movies<\/a> like The Lobster<\/em>, they do so there because they come paired with grand exaggeration and actors whose faces reveal feelings even when their dialogue delivery doesn\u2019t. Dual<\/em> lacks both of those things, and while Gillan and Aaron Paul<\/strong> (who plays her self-defense trainer, Trent) are solid actors neither is able to transcend the flatness of their words. The (perhaps too) obvious choice would been to play the double as livelier to show the difference between the apathetic Sarah and her \u201cimproved\u201d clone, but having them feel interchangeable lessens the already limited emotional connection with viewers.<\/p>\n
There are dark laughs in Dual<\/em> as Sarah is instructed to pay support to the double, her own mother comes to prefer the clone, and Sarah 2.0 quickly succumbs to life\u2019s frustrations, but too little is done with the observations. And then there\u2019s the ending. No spoilers here, but the choices Stearns makes require emotional connections that just aren\u2019t here \u2014 we\u2019re not nearly as invested as the film needs us to be, and the already low energy heading into the third act is left only to deflate further.<\/p>\n
What does work, to a degree at least, is the film\u2019s thoughts on what it takes to become not just a \u201cbetter\u201d person, but the person we deserve to be. As mentioned, Sarah begins the film as someone who\u2019s no longer moved by life. Small frustrations mount, but for the most part she\u2019s living an indifferent life. The terminal diagnosis confirms that feeling, but the reversal gives her the jolt she was lacking. Her time with Trent, in addition to being the film\u2019s sole moments of personality and life, see her slowly waking up to possibility and purpose. It\u2019s promising, but as with everything else it\u2019s undercut by the choice to play everything so monotone.<\/p>\n
Dual<\/em> may not live up to its highly intriguing premise of having to literally fight yourself if you want to survive, but the idea is no less interesting for it. There are enough moments here to make a watch worthwhile \u2014 and the ninety-five minute running time certainly helps \u2014 but it might leave you wishing Stearns could get a do-over and a second chance at giving the film life.<\/p>\n
    Related Topics: Sundance\n    <!-- AUTHOR BOX -->\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
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\n            Rob Hunter has been writing for Film School Rejects since before you were born, which is weird seeing as he’s so damn young. He’s our Chief Film Critic and Associate Editor and lists ‘Broadcast News<\/a>’ as his favorite film of all time. Feel free to say hi if you see him on Twitter @FakeRobHunter<\/a>.        <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“#’Dual’ is a Battle Between Stellar Premise and Wobbly Execution” <span class=”mx-1″>Karen Gillan struggles against herself in the latest from the director of \u2018Faults\u2019 and \u2018The Art of Self Defense.\u2019<\/span> <\/p><div id=””> <figure class=”sf-entry-featured-media “> <img width=”800″ height=”420″ src=”https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/dual.jpg” class=”articlethumb wp-post-image” alt=”Karen Gillan and Karen Gillan in Dual” loading=”lazy” srcset=”https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/dual.jpg 800w, https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/dual-768×403.jpg 768w” sizes=”(max-width: 800px)…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":401387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/dual.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-401386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}