But it still has its flaws. Overall though, I enjoyed it and I'm glad I watched. It's a long way away from being a waste of my time, of which other reviewers accuse it.

This isn't exactly a comedy, although it does put its characters in some inherently comedic situations and it did make me laugh in places, at least in the first half of the film.

Karen Gillan is right at the centre of this film, even more so because she played two characters. I thought she was good. Her muted performance was appropriate to the tone of the film. Those reviewers who criticise her performance might perhaps think about the director of the film, who as the writer too must have known exactly what he wanted and would surely have directed her differently if he were unhappy. At lot was resting on her performance and I found it hard to take my eyes off her. Job done.

Something that I found oddly jarring was KG's American accent. If it had been filmed in the US with Americans cast in all the smaller parts, then this would have been fine. But, given that a lot of the smaller parts were filled by European actors who didn't even attempt an American accent. Maybe Karen's Inverness accent would have been a step too far. I kinda think that if they decided that she couldn't speak in her native accent then an American accent was probably a better choice than her doing an English accent. But it's a shame that she couldn't be Scottish.

So, that ending ... hehe. I'm still not sure who I think the survivor is. And I've watched it twice. I've read arguments for both. First thing to say ... if the director had wanted it to be more clear, he could have done that. But instead we have some clues and some abiguity. I admit I felt a bit cheated by the ending the first time I watched it, but after a second watch I'm OK with it. I do have an opinion on which the survivor was, but I'll keep you in suspense a little longer ;-)

Sarah's water was poisoned. That's undeniable I think. The big "S" and "D" on the two water bottles, the fact that the double just sipped and watched Sarah drink to make sure she had enough. Peter and Sarah's mother were in on this plan. When the survivor turned up at the football field for the duel, they were sat where they could hear the survivor say she was Sarah. They smiled back at her. We know they wanted the double to survive. So the only way they would be happy was if they knew that it was the plan for the double to say she was Sarah.

So from that point on, it's either the double pretending to be Sarah or it's Sarah pretending to be the double pretending to be Sarah.

I think the key is the poisoning. Poison was mentioned in Sarah's training. Her reaction at the time was "I should have thought of that." But she was not at all suspicious when her double encouraged her to drink the poisoned water. I can read this two ways: First, maybe it's just a bit of foreshadowing for the audience ... the poison photo being in the training and Sarah's reaction is supposed to establish that it's a blind spot of hers, so that it's no surprise that she falls for it at the end. But then I can also think that it's supposed to show that Sarah is well aware that she is drinking poisoned water at the end and has some plan to thwart being poisoned. Other reviewers have said this is what they think. I want to believe it too, but, there is absolutely nothing in the rest of the film to support it so I don't. So, I think the double survived.

Ultimately though, I'm not sure it matters. Whichever of them it was that breaks down and cries on the roundabout at the end, it's tragic. Trapped in a life you don't like, pretending to be someone else. That's true for both of them. If it's Sarah, she's pretending to be the double to her husband and mother. And if it's the double, she's pretending to be Sarah to everyone other than her husband and mother. Pretty bleak whichever it is.

Something else to consider is Sarah's cracked phone, which the survivor has at the end. And the fact that Sarah's mother calls it. But that can be explained if the double takes Sarah's phone after Sarah drops dead from the poison and puts her SIM in it. It's just not conclusive one way or the other.

Anything else I might bring up is even more tenuous.

If you made it this far, thank you and congratulations!

I'm not surprised by the relatively low IMDb rating for this movie here on IMDb, a '5.8' at the time I write this review. For this viewer however, I found the concept of the film highly original and totally whack. I'm sure the folks at 'Black Mirror' would be proud. I think the average person watching the film tries to look at it as a serious picture when it's really not meant to be. The situations and dialog are intentionally absurd to the point of being hysterical. The high water mark for me was when Sarah (Karen Gillan) was advised by her attorney (Darren McStay) to hire a combat trainer for a forced duel against her clone, having overcome a ninety eight percent probability of dying. Much of the dialog in the story is couched in deadpan black humor; the back and forth between Sarah and her doctor regarding the unaccountable two percent was brilliantly scripted. I also got a big kick out of combat trainer Trent's (Aaron Paul) suggestion of an alternate method of paying for his services. Come on now, you all know where you thought that was going now, didn't you? When it turned out to be hip-hop lessons, I thought I'd fall off the couch! Look, I'm probably not going to be able to convince the haters of this movie to change their mind, but if you come at it from a different perspective, you might find the story creatively amusing. There's also the uniquely double entendre'd nature of the title, since the 'duals' of the story are destined to 'duel' for the right of survivorship.

P. S. For what it's worth, I believe it was the Sarah clone who killed Sarah in the woods by poisoning her with the tainted bottle of water; note the look on the clone's face when she suggests taking a second sip. Sarah's car appears dented up and winds up marooned in the traffic circle at the close of the picture because the Sarah clone didn't know how to drive, admitting that she mixed up the functioning of the steering wheel with the brake pedal. Topping things off, she screamed her frustration because she was now trapped into living Sarah's life, one which she sought to change upon meeting Peter (Beulah Koale) and Sarah's mother (Maija Paunio), but realizing now she couldn't do it.

I would like to meet writer/director Riley Stearns. His films have a very unique sense of humour about them and I would like to know if that's how he naturally is. They are very dry and quite dark. You never quite know if you're supposed to be laughing or not. I think most of the time you are.

The film begins with a very intriguing opening scene featuring a duel. At this point I was wondering if the title of the movie had been misspelled. It soon became apparent however that it had not. The film went in a very different direction to what I was expecting and I really enjoyed it.

This was a film where I had absolutely no idea how it was going to end. There were dozens of different conclusions it could have gone with. I really liked the one they picked. It was dark, thought-provoking and interesting. I really enjoyed 'Dual' and would recommend it. 8/10.