Ali convincingly plays a man with a terminal illness who has a doppelganger made of himself in this unsettling, elegant film
![Swan Song review – Mahershala Ali is twice the man in melancholy sci-fi mystery](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/1a7488854b18890a0d07d968dd3666064cfbd7e3/2_284_5134_3080/master/5134.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctcmV2aWV3LTMucG5n&enable=upscale&s=1ee5b951fae561939a71e7ca95151ff3)
Mahershala Ali gives a heartfelt performance in this elegant and rather melancholy sci-fi mystery with which
Irish film-maker Benjamin Cleary makes his impressive feature debut. It’s an unsettling picture in the tradition of John Frankenheimer’s Seconds or Alex Garland’s Ex Machina.
The time is the not-too-distant future in which Cameron (Ali) is a graphic designer married to Poppy (Naomie Harris), whom he met-cute one morning on a commuter train over a misunderstanding concerning a candy bar (a micro-comedy-of-errors routine which I do have to say has already been used in a number of short films). They now have a small son. But Cameron has a terminal illness and fears revealing it to Poppy will devastate her, as she is only just getting over a family tragedy.