Matthew Turner | On 31, Aug 2015

Director: Isabel Coixet
Cast: Sophie Turner, Rhys Ifans, Claire Forlani, Gregg Sulkin, Leonor Watling, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Geraldine Chaplin
Watch Another Me online in the UK: Monday 31st August

Based on a novel by Scottish author Cathy MacPhail, Another Me stars Sophie Turner (hot off Game of Thrones) as Fay, a Welsh schoolgirl whose kind-hearted father (Rhys Ifans) has recently developed multiple sclerosis, and whose mother (Claire Forlani) is spending a lot of nights away from home. Things look up for Fay when her drama teacher (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) casts her as Lady Macbeth opposite school heart-throb Drew (Gregg Sulkin), but in landing the part she makes an enemy of classmate Monica (Charlotte Vega), who’s cast as her understudy.

However, Monica’s jealousy turns out to be the least of Fay’s problems. First, she discovers her mother is having an affair with someone she knows and second, she starts experiencing spooky goings-on, such as her elderly next-door neighbour (a scene-stealing Geraldine Chaplin) insisting she saw her on the stairs when she always takes the lift, or the occasional spontaneously cracking window. Soon Fay starts to believe she has seen her own doppelganger, but is it her identically hair-styled understudy messing with her head, or is something more sinister going on?

Turner is an undeniably striking presence on screen, but she’s badly let down by the script and dialogue and too often ends up coming across as a sulky, whiny teenager. Ifans is excellent as her sympathetic father and their scenes together are nicely handled, but most of the other characters are thinly sketched at best, though it’s nice to see Forlani on screen again.

Catalan director Coixet (Me Without You) is known for her rich visual style and an early, brightly-lit flashback scene to happier times seems quite promising, but the majority of the story takes place either at night, under thick grey skies or shrouded in fog, starving the film of colour and giving the whole thing an overwhelmingly drab atmosphere.

The biggest problem is that the script fails to tie any of its story elements together in satisfying fashion: schoolgirl jealousy, first love and the discovery of her mother’s affair are all rich subjects for drama, but the film fails to exploit any of them, so it lacks the necessary emotional impact.

Similarly, the film falls down when it comes to its central mystery – the existence of a doppelganger should be creepy and nightmarish, but the film refuses to have any fun with it. For example, at one point Fay takes the day off school, only to be told the next day by her teacher and all her classmates that no, she was definitely at school yesterday, and yet her doppelganger doesn’t appear to have actually done anything interesting with that opportunity, other than do a better job of being Lady Macbeth. (Speaking of which, Macbeth is a decidedly odd decision for the school play since it’s only really used to get Fay and Drew together – what was wrong with Romeo & Juliet?)

Another Me fails to provide anything substantial in the way of scares and leaves you feeling distinctly unsatisfied, thanks to a disappointing script and a general lack of focus in the direction.

Another Me is released on VOD and DVD on Monday 31st August.

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