We are always fighting with different versions of ourselves. Sometimes that tension can be minor, like when we look in the mirror and resent our gray hair, or a nurse a nasty hangover that would never occur when we were younger. Dual, the new sci-fi film from writer/director Riley Sterns, takes that constant need for self-evaluation – or self-loathing – and makes it literal. He imagines a world where, though a stream of bad luck, a young woman has no choice but fight her clone to the death.
If you have seen Stearns’ other films like Faults and The Art of Self-Defense, you’ll know that he approaches his subjects with keen psychological insight and deadpan black comedy. Situations and dialogue get increasingly absurd, so the only recourse is to wince or laugh at the expense of characters, all of whom treat their situation with grim severity. There is plenty of that here, except Stearns somehow loses his nerve at the most crucial point. It is rare to see a film whiff its final minutes this badly.
Why does Sarah (Karen Gillan) have a clone in the first place? In Stearns’ version of the distant future, people can clone themselves when they have a terminal illness or severe depression, and Sarah has started vomiting blood (the script declines to name her malady). Maybe the existence of a clone can soften the blow for her boyfriend (Beulah Koale) and mother (Maija Paunio), as a cloned Sarah would in effect prolong her life. Death and grief are frivolities in Sarah’s world, not an important part of everyday life, although there are complications when her prognosis takes a turn and her sickness disappears. The second Sarah (Gillan) now wants of a life of her own, which is where the fight to the death comes in. Society cannot abide two copies of the same person walking around, so mortal combat is the only fair recourse.
Before Sarah trains for battle, there is a lengthy section where she coexists with her clone. Because the clone is newer, it is in slightly better condition and has fewer hang-ups than someone who has been around long enough to develop a personality. The boyfriend and mother start to prefer the Sarah without any baggage, leading to ironies and slights OG Sarah has no choice but to accept. Gillan and the other characters speak matter-of-factly, to the point that Sarah’s demeanor almost suggests she might be on the spectrum. Gillan’s performance can be funny because Sarah sees her situation with piercing clarity, and she does not get too worked up about it. The prospect of the duel barely gets a rise out of her, and the washed-out color palette further suggests a future without much passion, perhaps because everyone’s sense of life and death has permanently changed.
Still, she needs her familiarize herself with how to fight, so she enlists Trent (Aaron Paul), a trainer who specializes in duels. There is the usual mix of martial arts and calisthenics, with the added wrinkle of becoming more comfortable with violence (Sarah’s homework involves watching low-rent horror in the vein of Troma). Stearns clearly has withering ideas about self-improvement, and uses the trappings of his premise to suggest just how silly those efforts can be. One cannot help but wonder whether there is a personal component to his ideas: Stearns publicly divorced the actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who is now married to Ewan McGregor. Maybe he sees himself in Sarah, who was replaced with an “improved” model? No matter how autobiographical he intends the film, he clearly has thought about what it means to be cast aside.
Dual ends with a bait and switch. The two Sarahs arrive at a truce, and from there, their impasse resolves in a way that suggests Stearns has little interest in taking its premise to its logical conclusion. Instead, we are left with an unfilled feeling, a situation where the two Sarahs need not learn which one deserves to survive. While there is an ending of sorts, it ultimately reflects a shyness that the film has about its own ideas. For something that creates a unique tone and point of view for the vast majority of its runtime, it is a disappointment to see Stearns conflate ambiguity with indecision.
Photo courtesy of RLJE Films
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