Despite having heard about this title a few years ago, I was not a aware that it was a work by Denis Villeneuve until it appeared in the line-up of Dan Murrell's Movie Club. Finding Villeneuve's films such as Sicario (2015-also reviewed) to be outstanding, I decided to take on my enemy.
View on the film:
Charged up by a pitch-perfect, chilling droning score from Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans, directing auteur Denis Villeneuve un-webs his distinctive long establishing shots by closely working with cinematographer Nicolas Bolduc to subtly capture Adam and Anthony webbing themselves away in the vast empty spaces of the wide-screen frame, from having to enter committed relationships.
Walking through a stark, rusting gold tint, Villeneuve unleashes an unsettling Thriller atmosphere, thanks to meticulous, long-take tracking shots, delicately framed wide-shots, and razor-sharp push-ins on the increasingly self-isolated, (a recurring theme of Villeneuve's main characters) Anthony and Adam,who lay the canvas for mesmerizing slices of surrealism, that tangles them up in all the paranoia, mistrust and doubt that they had built their webs with.
Pausing a movie he is watching, when a figure who looks just like him appears in the background, Jake Gyllenhaal gives an absolutely incredible performance as Adam and Anthony,via Adam's curiosity chipping away at the quiet normality of his life, used by Gyllenhaal to display Adam's doubts, over if this was the only path his life could have taken, contrasted by Gyllenhaal having Anthony cut off anyone who questions the possibility of a double, leading to his partner Mary (played by a wonderful Melanie Laurent) being given the cold shoulder, until Adam cuts through Anthony's isolating web.
Holding back from web-slinging and making clear who is the hero,and who is the enemy, the screenplay by Javier Gullon skillfully adapts Jose Saramago's novel with seeping, paranoid psychological thrills from Adam obsessively attempting to map a full picture of Anthony, which results in Gullon studying the tangled links that web the duo together,and on a tense, ambiguous note, the spiral of relationships that have been isolated and killed in their webs, as Anthony and Adam, come face to face with a enemy.
View on the film:
Charged up by a pitch-perfect, chilling droning score from Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans, directing auteur Denis Villeneuve un-webs his distinctive long establishing shots by closely working with cinematographer Nicolas Bolduc to subtly capture Adam and Anthony webbing themselves away in the vast empty spaces of the wide-screen frame, from having to enter committed relationships.
Walking through a stark, rusting gold tint, Villeneuve unleashes an unsettling Thriller atmosphere, thanks to meticulous, long-take tracking shots, delicately framed wide-shots, and razor-sharp push-ins on the increasingly self-isolated, (a recurring theme of Villeneuve's main characters) Anthony and Adam,who lay the canvas for mesmerizing slices of surrealism, that tangles them up in all the paranoia, mistrust and doubt that they had built their webs with.
Pausing a movie he is watching, when a figure who looks just like him appears in the background, Jake Gyllenhaal gives an absolutely incredible performance as Adam and Anthony,via Adam's curiosity chipping away at the quiet normality of his life, used by Gyllenhaal to display Adam's doubts, over if this was the only path his life could have taken, contrasted by Gyllenhaal having Anthony cut off anyone who questions the possibility of a double, leading to his partner Mary (played by a wonderful Melanie Laurent) being given the cold shoulder, until Adam cuts through Anthony's isolating web.
Holding back from web-slinging and making clear who is the hero,and who is the enemy, the screenplay by Javier Gullon skillfully adapts Jose Saramago's novel with seeping, paranoid psychological thrills from Adam obsessively attempting to map a full picture of Anthony, which results in Gullon studying the tangled links that web the duo together,and on a tense, ambiguous note, the spiral of relationships that have been isolated and killed in their webs, as Anthony and Adam, come face to face with a enemy.