Denis Villeneuve directs Jake Gyllenhaal, Jake Gyllenhaal and Mélanie Laurent in this existential thriller where a man discovers his doppelgänger and tries to make contact.

Cronenbergian architecture and (non-)emotion. Kubrickian framing and mordant wit. Lynchian bursts of surrealism and mundanity… are all xeroxed here. This ‘bottle episode’ exercise from a director who thinks large should be a cult item. Yet it never fully comes to life. The patient mystery is primed by the third act to shift into a dark thriller or psycho sexual love quadrangle territory but then ends abruptly on a weak punchline. A superb cast inhabit their puzzling enigmas well, but this is cryptic without ever being taxing. Like the best cult items then – a movie with a better poster than content.

5