The idea that must have flashed in someone’s mind when they thought of making Double Life: Just get two female characters running about in the streets, solving a case. Double Life indeed features two female characters, and they do run about here and there to solve a case. No character justifications are given (other than superficially, of course) for their tenacious and courageous attitude, and the film tries to talk about the ‘double life’ of somebody who dies in the first five minutes. No wonder the plot seems forced.
Double Life‘s story begins by showing us Mark’s double life. Working for the district attorney’s office, he has something big against the coal company Dellicano that might just bring the company down. He is cheating on his wife with his mistress. Both women love him and are distraught when he dies. The death is no accident, and they both fear it’s a murder. The incident becomes the reason for both of them to get to know each other and come together to find out who killed Mark.
Spoilers Ahead
Plot Synopsis: What Happens in ‘Double Life’?
Mark, a lawyer working for District Attorney Sheldon Roberts, is up against a powerful coal company, Dellicano. He shows his press conference, telecast on TV, to his mistress, Josephine, aka Jo. Mark is married to Sharon, but she doesn’t have the slightest clue as to what Mark does when he is out on his ‘work-related’ meetings. Classic case of infidelity! Jo loves Mark and is unaware that he is married. She works in a bar and sees a man handing over something to her. Mark had his weekend away with Jo and was on his way to meet Sharon when he had an accident and died. Sharon, however, knows something is wrong, as he was on the phone with her when a car was tailgating him, and moments later, the accident occurred. Even the police were open to looking at the homicide angle. Jo came to learn about Mark’s sudden demise, and she went on to meet Sharon to give her condolences. Jo did not reveal the truth to Sharon, but the two grieving women clicked right away and started to look into Mark’s death themselves. Their first task was to find a man named Ernie Dux.
How did they find Ernie Dux?
The man Jo saw in the bar with Mark was Ernie Dux. Jo couldn’t see what exactly was exchanged, but the whole deal was unnerving. Sharon and Jo discussed that Mark was working on a case against Dellicano, and maybe he got something from Ernie that was of utmost importance to bring the company down. To find out what Mark had that perhaps got him into trouble, Sharon and Jo tried to locate Ernie. But they are not detectives! Luckily, Jo knew Ernie’s girlfriend, Wendy, and through her, she got to know Ernie’s whereabouts. They both first tried to contact Detective Carmen Traxler, but she didn’t pick up, so they decided to visit Ernie themselves, and guess what? They found him dead in his house, with two men with guns still present there. Thanks to Jo’s bravado, they survived, and Sharon got even more convinced that Mark was murdered.
Why did Sharon continue the investigation with Jo?
Jo knew how to fight, and Detective Traxler told Sharon about Jo’s delinquent past. Traxler told Sharon that Jo could be a dangerous woman, potentially leading her into danger. But something in Sharon knew that Jo was a good person and that her criminal past had nothing to do with the incident that they were both investigating. It turned out that the two men who were there at Ernie’s house were Louis Strand and his son. He was a notorious criminal, and according to Traxler, they were lucky to be alive.
The harrowing incident didn’t deter either of the bereaved women. In fact, now that they were sure of foul play, they decided to dig deeper. Before they could move in any direction, Sharon found photos of Mark and Jo getting intimate and realized that he was cheating on her with Jo. Sharon couldn’t deal with it. Somebody had attacked and destroyed her house, and the only sympathetic shoulder she could find was Larry, Mark’s colleague. He, too, was not to be trusted, as he, too, was a cunning figure. Jo and Sharon’s friendship seemed as if it had come to an end, but Jo came back and told her that if she had known that Mark was married, she wouldn’t have gotten involved with him. Sharon hadn’t forgiven her, but when Jo saw a picture of Larry, she remembered that he was also there with Mark on the night of the ‘accident.’ But Sharon had just been with him, and he told her that he hadn’t met Mark. Larry was lying, and Sharon had no one around her that she could trust. Jo loved Mark, which was apparent because she was willing to put her life in danger for the truth. Sharon had at least this in common with her.
‘Double Life’ Ending Explained: Who killed Mark?
Even though Sharon and Jo were technically solving the case together, Sharon couldn’t bring herself to forgive her. She wanted to find out what happened to Mark but was angry at him for what he did as well. Sharon, however, kept her cool and went to Mark’s office to go through his computer in hopes of finding a clue. She found a video on Mark’s computer that had Sheldon’s wife, Lisa, at a function with Dellicano’s wife. Sharon even saw Traxler in the video. So Mark’s boss’ wife was involved with Dellicano’s wife; a man whose company Mark was fighting hard to take down. It seemed highly likely that Sheldon and Dellicano were colluding together as well. Sheldon had promised to protect Mark, but maybe he never was Mark’s ally. Outside the office, they ran into Larry, who came clean with them. He told Sharon that he, indeed, was with Mark on the night he was murdered, and he saw Ernie Dux sell a thumb drive to Mark. The thumb drive had evidence that would prove Dellicano Industry’s criminal negligence. Whoever had the pen drive and the thumb drive had killed Mark. Larry’s theory was that the murderer was perhaps using the thumb drive to extort Dellicano.
Jo and Sharon went to Lisa, Sheldon’s wife, to inquire about what exactly she was doing at the Dellicano charity event, where she and Dellicano’s wife were heard calling each other ‘best friends.’ The case got complicated when Traxler called both of them to explain that they were on the wrong track. They suspected Traxler of butchering Mark’s investigation, but the truth was she was there at the charity event because of the side security gig she had taken. Traxler warned Jo and Sharon that they were throwing all caution to the wind by investigating the matter. Sure, Sharon wasn’t alone and had Jo with her, who knew how to fight, but still, Louis and Sonny were still alive and maybe looking for her. Sharon received a call from Louis, who told her to come see them alone as they were holding Larry hostage.
Sharon, in order to protect Jo, left her alone after making the excuse that she could not forgive her for getting involved with Mark. She didn’t want her to come with her, as Louis was a dangerous guy and Jo could be harmed. She reached a warehouse, and the mystery solved itself. Larry had the thumb drive all along, but he shot Louis and his son Sonny to make it look like they had it. Larry had killed Mark and was using it to extort Sheldon, the district attorney. Sheldon was in cohorts with the Dellicanos, and his text messages were also present on the thumb drive, which, if they came out, would tarnish his image.
Sheldon arrived with the money but saw that Louis and Sonny had been shot. It was Sheldon who had hired them to locate the thumb drive. They first went to Sharon’s house, as they thought Mark could have given the thumb drive to his wife. They were the ones who ravaged the house but didn’t find the thumb drive. They had found their man right from the beginning, but Larry deflected them to Ernie Dux. Larry was the one who killed Ernie before they reached him. Only Ernie knew that Larry had seen the exchange take place, so Larry had to kill him. His deepest desire was not for the money. He always wanted Mark out of the way so he could be with Sharon. He was obsessed with her, and when the opportunity presented itself, he thought he could get both Sharon and the money from Sheldon. Alas, he got nothing but time in jail in the end.
Louis wasn’t dead, and he shot Larry. He saw that Sonny was dead, and he now had to kill everyone as he couldn’t let the police find out that he was involved. He was furious at Larry for setting him up to manipulate Sharon into caring for him. Before Louis killed Larry, Jo arrived and prevented the disaster. She had called Traxler, and the police arrived before anyone else was killed.
During Double Life‘s ending, Sheldon, Larry, and Louis were caught. Jo and Sharon, who both loved Mark, had finally solved his murder case together. Even though Sharon had made it look like she hated Jo earlier, Jo understood that she was in trouble. She traced her using her GPS and used her presence of mind to call Traxler. Their efforts also helped Mark’s case posthumously. The evidence on the thumb drive proved that Dellicano executives knew that the waste they were producing was contaminating the groundwater and yet did nothing to prevent it. Jo and Sharon became best friends after finding a companion. Their lives were separated by Mark’s lies, but now they were living peacefully, knowing that they did the right thing in the end, and they had quite an adventure.
