Dhani (Sanjiv Boodhu), a descendant of Brahmins, works as a Trinidadian street vendor with his poor mother. Both resent his father Ragbir (Errol Sitahal) for leaving them for Toronto, especially because of worsening conditions in Trinidad. Eventually, Dhani and Ragbir share the same basement apartment, eventually finding out that the latter’s physical state is deteriorating. Ian Harnarine’s Doubles shows that people stick for their family members, and that’s true despite personal histories. He asks for work at the same restaurant where Ragbir works, moving up in ways that the latter couldn’t. That restaurant, serving Canadianized version of Caribean food, is where he meets Anita (Rashaana Cumberbatch), working as a lowly waitress. Through Anita, he discovers that Ragbir isn’t a neglectful father, which complicates how he sees himself and the other characters.

The critics who saw this film as part of festivals see it as a love letter to Caribbean cuisine, which sure it is, loving it in its ungentrified form, just like – I’m corny – those who love this food. This film is about men who soften to a degree that anyone can’t harbour any ill feelings towards them. Doubles is also about middle aged immigrants who don’t fit within the Canadian stereotype of being ‘nice’ or fake. Dhani’s lack of niceness doesn’t always make for digestible, gentrified cinema, and the film around him is equally rough. Or at least this is true for the first half, the latter half eventually sanding off his grumpy edges. But then again, me complaining about his heel turn is just me as a ‘critic’ who is perpetually unsatisfied.

Dhani being a difficult central character in Doubles makes it equally baffling that Anita is so nice to him. But then again the film chalks that up to her seeing Dhani as the boy in Ragbir’s pictures of him. She probably understands him in the way that my Westernised ways can’t anymore but can see as a fellow immigrant. As immigrants, we complain about being nice, and seeing Dhani embody the opposite is, on further thought, somewhat refreshing. The film also convinces viewers that the dynamic between Anita and Dhani is one of its best ace cards. After all, my favourite microgenre within film is when two straight people feel platonic love and don’t make out. This film, after all, is about finding family, which, again, as an immigrant, we all do in new lands.

Doubles comes out in select Canadian theatres in the year of our Lord (Beyoncé) 2024 (or this Friday the 26th).