Enemy (2013) User Reviews

The weirdest yet most enjoyable movie experience I have had in years.

[BigDick3 · 8/10 · 9 May 2014]

Villeneuve has came out and produced another brilliant film, I love that he has used Jake Gyllenhall again after Prisoners. He owns this film with a wonderful performance.

There is a lot of confusion about the film and what the spiders represent, was there really 2 Jakes or were they the same guy? I have read some pretty interesting ideas from other people, I don't claim to completely understand it but would like to throw something out there for consideration.

The movie opens with the biggest clue of how to understand what your about to see when the message "Chaos is order yet undeciphered" appears. The whole movie is like a jigsaw puzzle that will make sense if you can put it together in the correct order.

I have not read every review or theory on it but from the ones I have read all seem to believe that the scene in the "Sex Club" we see at the beginning happens before most of the other scenes and that the scene at the end where he tells the wife he plans on going out before she turns into a giant spider is him repeating the cycle all over again.

In my opinion the "Sex Club" scene takes place afterwards, we see him walking down the corridor with the caretaker and only Jake has a key, he lets the caretaker in. We hear in the elevator the caretaker has been before but does not think he will get a new key. So it's my opinion that the key in the envelope is the new keys that were being sent out and he as a favour allows the caretaker to tag along.

There are some clues throughout the film though that go along with the theme of history repeating himself for example when we hear Jake give a lecture and then the same lecture slightly mumbled and less enthusiastic. I have read people say this represents his day to day life however my opinion is that they are actually a year apart. He was giving the same lecture to the next generation of students. I believe that most of the story takes place over a period of a year based on the 2 incidents where "6 months" is mentioned. The first is when he goes to the talent agency and the security guard has not seen him in 6 months, and then again when his wife says she is 6 months pregnant.

I won't go through every scene and tell you my opinion of what goes where as part of the fun is figuring it out for yourself by watching it a second and even third time.

I could be way off with all of this and completely wrong, but in my opinion that is the beauty of this movie.

Thoughts on Enemy

[tarantino_feet_pics · 7/10 · 21 April 2020]

Enemy is a very good psychological thriller. Jake Gyllenhaal plays two great subtle characters. The muted colour palette and eerie score give a great atmosphere. Denis Villeneuve purposely leaves it vague and open ended. It's very strange had hard to decipher. I found it to be a lot more enjoyable upon trying to uncover its meaning and narrative. Upon a passive viewing and likely a first viewing Enemy is hard to understand and seems a bit nonsensical or chaotic. But as the opening card says 'chaos is order yet undeciphered.' So let me try:

Anthony and Adam are the same person, just two different personalities of the same person suffering from multiple personally disorder. There are several clues the allude to MPD instead of simply just a doppelganger. Firstly, apart from both men looking exactly the same they also share the same voice and even have the same scar on their chest. Although not directly shown it's apparent from Adam's reaction that they both share the scar. Secondly is the blueberries. Adam supposedly hates blueberries while Anthony enjoys them. And while in a scene with Adam's mother she insists that he does enjoy blueberries, further blurring the lines between the two. Lastly Adam and Anthony have the exact same photo with Helen. Adam's copy of the photo has Helen's half ripped off.

Adam and Helen seem to be the original couple. He has a fear of commitment maybe brought on or at least amplified by Helen's pregnancy. Adam protests against the restrictions his relationship puts on him. In response he's created this other personality trying escape his commitment. Anthony is living out the life that Adam is not. Anthony is domineering, drives a motorcycle, is pursuing Adam's ambitions to have an acting career and is living life with another women.

The spider I believe is a visual representation of fear. Adam has an intense fear of commitment. One of the most common fears is Arachnophobia, the fear of spiders. The spider is meant to personify fear and specifically Adam's fear of commitment. It's also interesting to note that in the sex club that Jake Gyllenhaal attends a spider is showcased. This spider however is stepped on, symbolizing his apathy for commitment.

The two personalities play out a war for dominance. Anthony is subsequently killed when Helen shows affection toward Adam and tell him "I want you to stay." The Anthony part of Adam's psyche dies in the car wreck.

We are lead to believe that Adam has had some sort of resolution but Hegel's words ring true as Adam unveils a key to the sex club and says "I think I have to go out."

"All the worlds greatest events happen twice. The first time as tragedy, the second as farce." 7.5/10

Definitely does stay with you

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 18 October 2017]

Denis Villeneuve to me is a hugely talented director, and the six films seen of his so far have all been good to outstanding. 'Sicario', 'Incendies' and 'Blade Runner 2049' are especially good. 'Prisoners' was very good and almost great until let down by the ending and while 'Arrival' had its issues it was also well done with a lot to admire.

That 'Enemy' has replaced 'Arrival' as my least favourite Villeneuve film and still manages to be a film of many admirable qualities says a lot about how talented he is and how good his best films are. Can totally understand why 'Enemy' would captivate many critics and on the flip side confound others, 'Arrival' is a very divisive film but 'Enemy' (after only seeing it recently) seems to divide people much more. It's one of Villeneuve's most ambitious films (between this and 'Sicario' as the most) and also his most puzzling and least accessible perhaps. Found a lot to admire about 'Enemy' myself, but it is one of those "highly appreciate" than "love" films.

Will admit to not completely understanding some of the storytelling and symbolism/metaphors, there are parts that could have gone into much more depth with some very intriguing ideas that are not fully explored. It is not always the most consistently involving film either, some of the pacing is drawn out too much and could have done with some more tightening.

Count me in too as somebody who found the ending, one of the film's most polarising elements, unsatisfying. It was unsettling sure, but it was also abrupt, incomplete feeling and left too many questions unresolved.

On the other hand, 'Enemy' is exceptionally well made. The visual style is both attractive and lurid, the dark and yellow hues allure and disturb in equal measure and the whole film is expertly in its cinematography. The music is appropriately creepy and anxiety-inducing.

'Enemy's' dialogue is sparse but when it appears it's thought-provoking. The symbolism and metaphors perplex at times but unsettle and fascinate every bit as much. The story has its problems, but it is a very intriguing premise that has a very creepy and wonderfully weird (drawing favourable comparisons with David Lynch, and one can see why) atmosphere, a tight structure and some of the suspense makes one bite the nails in anxiety. Regardless of what anyone's stance on the film is overall, it is hard to deny that 'Enemy' definitely does stay with you long after it's over.

Villeneuve deserves a large part of the credit for his smart and suspenseful direction. Likewise with the truly incredible lead performance from Jake Gyllenhaal. Sarah Gadon and Isabella Rossellini are both very well cast, particularly Gadon who to me is at her best here.

In conclusion, divisive and problematic but leaves a lasting impression. 7/10 Bethany Cox

A man trapped in his own mind, his own 'Enemy', trying to make sense of it.

[TxMike · 5 August 2014]

I watched this movie last night. I must admit that it kept me interested but when it was over I felt it was too ambiguous, too open to multiple interpretations. Even when you view the DVD extra, the cast and director came up with a list of questions, but the book's author died before they could ask him. So in a real sense the director and actors are not fully certain what the movie was about, except that much of it, if not all, was taking place in the main character's mind.

There are several good actors here but I will only mention Jake Gyllenhaal who plays two characters, Adam the history professor and Anthony the small-time actor. As the story unfolds Adam is watching a movie someone recommended and notices one actor looks exactly like him. This shakes him, but is compelled to look him up. From there we witness Adam has a girlfriend, in what amounts to just for sex, and Anthony has a wife 6 months pregnant.

When you think about the various encounters all the characters have, and the things that are said, it is clear that Adam and Anthony really are the same person, and it would make most sense if we consider most everything a dream. Adam is fighting with the 'enemy' inside himself, perhaps rebelling against commitment, of being married and faithful, of being a father.

The other theme throughout are the presence of various spiders, or webs that remind one of spider webs. I listened to one analysis that claimed those represented Adam's own psyche, while another claimed it represented Adam's view of women, of their being ready and able to devour you.

Regardless, while it interested me, it is too ambiguous for me to consider it an above-average movie. Just a bit too arcane in its delivery. In the end, when Anthony is off with the girlfriend, coming home he has a car wreck, we assume (but don't really know) that the Anthony manifestation was killed off, leaving open the possibility that Adam is coming to grips with his life and desires to be Adam the professor.

weirdly intriguing

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 3 October 2014]

Adam Bell (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a history professor at UGT in Toronto. He lives a tired monotonous life with his girlfriend Mary (Mélanie Laurent). On a recommendation, he rents a movie and finds a bit actor named Daniel Saint Claire who looks exactly like him. After some searching, he finds that Daniel's real name is Anthony Claire and he's married to the pregnant Helen (Sarah Gadon).

Adam's life is tired and boring. I get that point. In fact, I get that point within the first five minutes. It needs to move faster to get to the heart of the movie. It's an unnecessarily slow start. Once it gets going, this has a nice sense of paranoia and unrealism. Everything including the setting, the props, the music, the grayish tones, and the brutal architecture gives off a weird 70s hyper-unreal feel to the movie. Then there is the spider thing. I'm fine with not able to explain it myself. It may be better that there is no easy resolution. I can live off of the mood of the movie by itself.

Complicated and open for interpretation

[jackgdemoss · 6/10 · 15 May 2019]

The proper way to watch this film is to be committed to working your hardest to decipher it. I believe the only real satisfaction could be from putting the pieces together in a way that comes to a logical conclusion that you feel comfortable with, because Enemy will not hand it over to you. I failed to commit this much mental fortitude and my viewing experience suffered because of it.

ill explain enemy for everyone

[raisingparanoia · 9/10 · 3 March 2014]

nobody seems to understand enemy, I loved the movie personally and you understand it if you watch it twice and pay attention.

okay ill try to explain it, it is about one man fighting with himself , while it is portrayed as two people (Anthony/Daniel and Adam) only one of them is real, and its Adam, I know this because in the beginning on the phone his mother is speaking and says "Adam honey" and also later on in the movie his mother also tells Adam (who is not an actor) to give up his dreams of being a third rate actor. now the story of this movie is hard to understand , its about Adam and Helens marriage and the remaining spark of an old affair, in the beginning you see it open with Jake Gyllenhaal in what is presumably a strip club, eventually you see a woman come out and step on a spider, the woman is Mary, Adam's affair , after that it opens to Adam sitting in his car as you hear his mother leave a voice mail for him. Throughout the movie you see spiders, spiders represent his affair with Mary, and how he still thinks about it, and when you see Adam with Mary he really isn't its just representing his still lasting feelings for her. you see when Adam calls Anthony it really wasn't Adam, it never happened, the whole phone call scene was his imagination, helping him realize he needs to forget about Mary. I'm gonna skip a bunch of unimportant things and try to go as chronologically as I can. At the point where Anthony tells Adam hes going to have sex with his girlfriend , that's really just Adam thinking to himself about him needing to get rid of Anthony and the memories of Mary. so when Anthony goes and takes Mary out that doesn't really happen. whats happening is Adam is thinking that up to help in the getting rid of memories, it is also revealed that Adam is the real person when Adam and Helen lay down and Helen asks how was school . the scene of Mary and Anthony having sex and Mary freaking out is Adam realizing he is married and needs to get rid of the memories, when Anthony and Mary crash the car it is Adam killing off the memories , squashing the spider per Se , this is supported when it zooms in on the crashed cars window the crack looks like a spiderweb, when Adam wakes up the radio speaks of a car crash but it says no details so It is likely that was just chance. also Helen reminds him about his mother calling him, which you should remember from the beginning of the movie. when Adam opens the letter and gets the key, it is a key to the strip club place, and he says to Helen he might have to go somewhere tonight. he goes to look at her and she is a huge spider, this represents how him going to the strip club would bring back the spider. during the movie the spider gets gradually bigger until it is huge and he cannot get it off his mind. so I hope I've explained well enough to help you understand what an amazing movie this truly is.

The real spider man

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 17 August 2015]

Denis Villeneuve made this film before Prisoners but Enemy had a limited release after it.

The clues are there regarding any possible meaning about the film and its inspirations. Some people liken it to Fight Club, which tend to be people who think film history started from 1999.

Villeneuve is Canadian and so is David Cronenberg who once made a film called Dead Ringers which is about paranoia and delusion among identical twins. You can go back to 1970 with The Man Who Haunted Himself where Roger Moore had a double which appeared after he had an accident.

The film opens with a telephone message from a character's mother played by Isabella Rossellini. She was once married to Martin Scorsese whose recent film is Shutter Island. She also lived with David Lynch and also appeared in some of his movies, Lynch films are well known to visit weirdsville just check out Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart and the television series Twin Peaks which also had a doppelganger.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays Adam Bell, a History professor in Toronto. He looks dishevelled, his hair and beard rather unkempt. He very much has routine, the daily grind of going to work teaching the same thing to students and going back home where he lives with his girlfriend. He rents a movie based on a recommendation of a colleague and shot locally. He notices that the actor playing the bellboy looks just like him and decides to seek him out.

The film opens with a scene of an underground club where people are given a key to access a sex show/orgy taking place. Think a low rent version of the orgy from Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. One of the men in this club looks like Adam. We also for the first time here see the spider motif, here a tarantula on the verge of being squashed by a lady in high heels.

Adam identifies the actor as Anthony Claire who had bit parts in a few other films. Adam stalks Anthony, visiting his office and calling him at home. Everyone, including Anthony's pregnant wife Helen confuse the two men. In a separate dreamlike image, a giant spider lurks among and above the skyscrapers of Toronto. Helen is suspicious of Anthony, she suspects he is having an affair.

Adam and Anthony eventually meet in a hotel room and discover they are identical which includes having a scar in the same place. Adam is reserved, intellectual. Anthony is a hot head, sexual also neater and dresses better.

Of course two men can look alike, have the same voice but the same scar? This just indicates a split personality, two sides of the same coin. Is Adam the man going to the sex clubs, having an affair, a man who feels trapped like he was in a spider's web?

This is a film that has a left field ending full of symbolism which means you end up watching it again in order to see the clues. Bad luck if you did not like the film the first time around and the post production grading of dark yellow, teal, murky brown that I found so off putting. Every film seems to have a similar colour scheme even straight to DVD movies with Z list stars. When cinematographers like Vilmos Zsigmond and Nestor Almendros were shooting with rays of golden hues they were using real skill and artistry not using Photoshop during post production.

The real highlight was when you see the film within the film, brightly lit and colourful and you think why could not the rest of the movie look like that.

Enemy, is bound to be a cult film with a cultish following. Its intriguing, its like a puzzle box and open to different interpretation, full of symbolism and pretensions. Even the title of one of the songs used is called The Cheater.

The title of the movie signifies that Adam is his own worst enemy, a man destined to repeat the same mistakes over and over again, its almost farcical something he said earlier in his lectures. Even when he might have rid of his double for good we see him with a new key of the type at the beginning of the film, telling the pregnant Helen he will be going out that night. A serial adulterer who does not want to be trapped.

The film is good, it burns slowly into you but never immediately grabbed my attention afterwards but its not a great film. Something about it is too heavy handed like the murky colours and the garish yellows used in the film.

"Enemy" movie analysis and meaning

[pablocarlier · 9/10 · 21 April 2014]

"Enemy" is the latest movie from Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, of "Prisoners" fame.

It is a doppelgänger story about a boring, gray man that discovers there is a cool, fancy actor that looks exactly like him. Exactly. Of course, he can't resist getting in touch with him, and of course that's where trouble begins.

Its twisted plot, visual features and philosophical themes have earned it a "what the heck" fame.

This movie is total chaos.

This is me trying to decipher it.

NOTE: This is just a summary, for my full review please visit: bit.ly/1eVEtD6

Adam and Anthony are two sides of the same person.

This is a man who feels trapped by his present as a boring, married, college professor about to become a father. He remembers his old dreams of youth (being an actor, having a cool bike, being a "man"). Spiders in the movie represent the "woman as a trap" in his mind, commitment that represses his individuality.

He gets carried away and leaves her wife and life for an adventure with another woman. This is represented by the initial private club scene where a stripper (his instinct) crushes a spider (the burden of his marriage and child).

He lives as an empty shell during this affair (memories stuffed in boxes in the back of his mind, torn pictures of his past representing the disconnect from his wife).

He reminisces of his old life (represented as his finding and research of his doppelgänger and his household). He does not like what he sees when he discovers his impulsive self. We learn he left aside his dreams for his wife (six months without visiting the acting agency, six months pregnant).

He is reminded by his mother (his conscience) of what really matters and what he has. Finally, he decides to return to his wife after an internal struggle where his instincts and his sense of responsibility fight to death. This death of his passionate, independent self is depicted literally as a car crash that kills his desire and ends with the close-up of a spider-web. He is trapped again.

His responsible self has dominated. But he is bound to make the same mistakes all over again. He finds and decides to use the key to the private club, darker desires come back to haunt him. And the cycle starts over again, in Hegelian form, repressing the self for the collectivism.

Watch It with Attention, Seek Explanation in Internet and Watch It Again

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 26 September 2014]

In Toronto, the college professor of Politics Adam Bell (Jake Gyllenhaal) lives a routine life with his girlfriend Mary (Mélanie Laurent). One day, he watches a rented DVD and sees an obscure supporting actor very alike to him and Adam becomes obsessed find him out. He discovers that his name is Anthony Claire and he is married with Helen (Sarah Gadon), who is six-month pregnant. Adam meets Anthony but soon he realizes that it was a mistake since his counterpart has put his eyes on Mary. Soon their lives become entwined.

"Enemy" is not a good movie, but has an intriguing story by José Saramago. For me, a good movie is able to present the story with neither the need of reading the novel not researching explanation in Internet. "Enemy" is a movie where the viewer needs to watch with attention, seek explanation in Internet (for example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9AWkqRwd1I provides a good explanation of the movie) and watch it again. Therefore the screenwriter fails in his script. Anyway it is intriguing and when you see it for the second time, it is worthwhile. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Homem Duplicado" ("The Duplicated Man")

Slow, weird art movie which leaves you dissapointed

[johanpers · 4/10 · 25 October 2021]

I really wanted to like it, but in the end I can't say that I do. The movie felt like it inserted weird scenes just for the hell of it, that did not make any sense. It is incredibly slow to the part I started jumping, and the music... No.

Feels like a weird art student had a movie idea and got funded. Weird to be weird, and throw in some fancy quotes in there to make it arty.

The acting is great, but that is about it.

After the movie it felt disappointing and like a waste of time.

Some credits for going for originality though.

Psychological masterpiece - a movie for every man's mind.

[jovanovicslo · 9/10 · 28 April 2014]

First thing that came to mind about this movie is, how much it reminds me of Kubrick's: Eyes Wide Shut. It's surrealism, it's ambiance, atmosphere and the theme nonetheless. The movie is beautifully woven together into a magical and complete world of it's own. In which some people who saw the film lost themselves and found it frustrating, and others found a magical way of portraying the character's mind. I must admit, I am one of the latter.

MY TAKE ON THE MOVIE:

1. THEME: The man lost in a world of his own choices, his own desires and vices. A constant struggle in every man's life, mind, heart. A world in which every man watching it, realizes, it is he himself, who is his worst enemy.

2. CHARACTERS: It is one person and two faces of the same man, as the poster itself portrays. The story itself tells you that in the scar aspect of the confrontation, where there is no doubt that they are no twins, that there is no way of thinking it can be a different person. Also his mother tells him to "stop dreaming about that acting hobby of yours".

3. "REALITY": What people watching want to do first, is construct a realistic world of it. And it's not. Watch it as a dream. Plenty of those tips and leads are left by the director to take you there (note for example the giant spiders strutting about the city landscape, the photography of the movie, etc.).

4. STORY: The beginning of the movie shows a pregnant wife, that of a man (both men/main characters)! It is a part of him that wants to escape. That webbed, trapped part and therefore create an alter ego, another self in which he can try to live out a different reality. A reality of a free sexual drive and ego. A reality without his wife. And in that urge and desire, the visuals of a crushed spider is always appear. (spiders being a symbol of his wife and the symbol of his relationship and commitment).

Therefore the teacher part is that part in which he can freely cheat on the wife. Note that the teacher's girlfriend is always leaving him in the middle of the night, never staying for the night. There is also mention of his cheating by his wife, when she asks him "you're seeing her again, aren't you", after he was on the phone.

He can be a free man without any guilt, but with that also comes the aftermath of such a life, no real purpose in his life, no satisfaction (his appearance and his almost depressed psychological state portray this part). His apartment also tells the story of this, empty, unfurnished, almost as a hotel room, just a usable space.

So his free, able to cheat part is seeking something more in life, someone that he can relate to, in effect, seeking his other self's wife and life. And the other part of him, married and bound is searching for the sexual adventures, ego and freedom. That's why the switch comes to place.

In the end, as one part of a man dies, the other is left with a "chosen reality". A choice every man has to make. He makes love to his wife, takes the place of a married man, and becomes solely that. And with that, he chose to confront the spider that is his commitment and his wife. But the lure of the key left behind is always there...

One dark and eerie thriller....

[joebloggscity · 6/10 · 4 January 2015]

This is one dark disturbing movie. It isn't a horror but will leave you feeling a bit uncomfortable. We have here a man who discovers that he has a doppelgänger, and decides to hunt the guy down to meet him. It all turns dark when they get involved with other's partners, and we have a dark movie which utilises sex heavily.

This is a very well done film. The acting is great, with Jake Gylennhaal competently driving the dark edges of the lead characters, who are all but identical except by the smallest margins in the mind. The directors doesn't shove anything, and allows a slow pace so as to not force anything.

The camera work is great, but it's the story that is the main crux. It doesn't give you any answers, and you can make out the parallels or analogies as you wish. There is a repeat use of a spider as a motif in the story somehow, but what it represents is never made clear.

Problem is that, it's so uninviting a film, and the characters mostly all unlikeable, that you can't help but feel distanced by this film. Its slow pace can be too slow, and hinders the films. It's more a film to think about and take away the points with you. You'll theorise various things about it.

It's not a bad film, but won't be for everyone. It's not easy to like and has a dark heart. Make of it what you will.

First time i Ever gave one star

[olegrenaa · 1/10 · 4 July 2019]

I have never Ever been this disappointed... So sad, so bad, what a waste of time.

More An Art House Film Than Mainstream Feature.

[CinemaClown · 12 May 2014]

Asking for your attention at all times, providing little clues in almost every sequence & still leaving you puzzled in the end, Enemy inclines more towards art house cinema than mainstream features and isn't going to please every viewer out there. It tells the story of a college professor living a mundane daily life who later seeks out his doppelgänger after spotting him in a movie thus setting in motion a chain of events which culminates with terrible consequences.

Directed by Denis Villeneuve (director of Incendies & Prisoners), Enemy is an ambitious work from the director who, of lately, has been steadily rising as one of the filmmakers to watch out for and is another fine feature in his bag. The writing makes a fine adaptation from the novel it's based on but also infuses more allegories & symbolism in the form of spiders into the script to keep the viewers guessing from start to finish.

Performances by the cast is very good with Jake Gyllenhaal playing the college professor & his lookalike movie actor with fine subtlety & the contribution by the supporting cast is strong as well. Cinematography captures the film with a very warm colour temperature blended with high contrasts along with excellent use of lighting. The background score has a pretty muted presence in here & editing has carefully structured the film with layers after layers of visual motifs.

One thing that'll bug its audience is if Jake Gyllenhaal characters are different persons or same. Other thing that'll leave them utterly confused is the ending if they still haven't figured out the meaning of spiders in the film. But hints are provided throughout its runtime & repeated viewings will only help in clearing those doubts. On an overall scale, Enemy is that brain-teasing cinematic ride which viewers would either risk to experience or reject it outright. Multiple viewings advised.

Kafka meets Lynch!

[corrosion-2 · 7/10 · 18 November 2013]

Denis Villeneuve, whose last two films were the hugely impressive Incendies and Prisoners, has concocted a real oddity here. If you can imagine David Lynch adapting a Kafka novel, then you will be in the right neighborhood! In Incendies and Prisoners,Villeneuve inserted serious moral and social issues in the context of first rate thrillers' Here he follows the same tradition but the tone is more abstract and absurd. Neverherless, Enemy, adapted from a novel by the Nobel prize winner Jose Saramago, is always gripping and totally fascinating. A man (Jake Gyllenhaal) gets a recommendation from a colleague to watch a particular video. The main actor in the video appears to be his doppelgänger and the two agree to meet. To reveal any more would lessen the enjoyment of this highly original film. Well worth catching.

Two guys one body and a cast of characters real and unreal conspire to confuse the viewer and elevate the movie into a film classic category but can't cut quite cut it.

[gursel_ali · 6/10 · 31 March 2017]

I watched Enemy the movie unfold like most people with a sense of what is going on? The movie takes a beating kind of rhythm to get there before the revelatory end. I've read some of the psycho intellectual interpretations below and kudos to the authors for deciphering the basic plot. I however cannot put this into a ' masterpiece' class. There are too many holes. The film starts with a recorded telephone message from Mother. And another later on. Contained in these messages is the key to the truth, explained in detail by the plot theorists below. However what hasn't been explained and isn't by anybody is that Mother during her second phone message says thank you for letting me visit your apartment and how could you live in that? This doesn't support the thesis that the doppelgängers are relally the same but divided person. If the reality is Helen and Adam and their life, they live in an elegant and quite classy though sterile apartment. This does not fit with mothers message. Her remarks about the apartment seem to be referring to the empty bachelor nest which is dark and depressing and belong to the invented bachelor part of the lead character. How does mother get access to the invented part of her sons life? I think this is what confused me as I was on the schitso track till then. Still good there are good performances, though I found the script clunky and indulged in the nowadays popular script device- the extended and nauseatingly long dialogue 'pause' which frustrated this viewer. A lot of contemporary directors favour 'the pause' . You'd never see Hitchcock or De Palmer reach for this pseudo intellectual arty device.

A disturbing psychological thriller

[trublu215 · 9/10 · 13 March 2014]

Enemy is the latest thriller from Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, and it stands as a hybrid mix of David Lynch and David Fincher at their very finest. Enemy follows Adam (Jake Gyllenhaal) on a journey to find his exact lookalike named Anthony, a terrible D-list celebrity. As his investigation deepens, the mystery thickens and he is thrown into a fray way above his head. What works in Enemy is Gyllenhaal's fearless performance as a man who is searching to find who he really is. There are a couple scenes that he has where is truly riveting and it becomes so hard to take your eyes off the screen. It really is an explosive yet very contained performance that I feel needs a lot of recognition. Enemy marks itself as a film about identity and never knowing who you truly are and the pressures of wanting to become something you're not. While it remains as a heavy message, it still makes for a film that almost demands repeat viewings. At 90 minutes even, the film moves and never slows down enough for us to even breathe. Before we can even question what is going on in one scene, Villeneuve throws us another curve ball to contend with. While that may bring confusion to many people, it is very welcoming to a viewer in the mood to do some serious thinking. Anything beyond that, it may garner some negative responses especially if you're not paying close attention. Enemy works well as a psychological thriller, bringing some of the most disturbing images I've seen on screen in recent years. This film is NOT scary, but it is extremely uneasy and very creepy, especially towards the last twenty minutes of the film, which had me holding my breath as we finally discover the truth of what is going on.

Overall, this is one hell of a film that really does almost require a second (and possibly a third) viewing. I highly recommend it, especially to fans of David Lynch's Eraserhead. The images are memorable, the performances are very well rounded and this is just a very very well done film.

Imagine you have a gift...

[A_Different_Drummer · 7/10 · 3 May 2014]

Hollywood has become so predictable and so formulaic over the last few decades -- take a franchise and beat it to death until it becomes unrecognizable, put the same star in every possible role until even his fans can't stand him anymore -- that we occasionally forget there are real film makers out there with real talent, film makers who have the ability to impact their audience without the need for formula or name talent. Clearly, one such talent is Villeneuve, who can literally take the most mundane action (drinking coffee, looking out a window, writing on a blackboard) and imbue it with multiple shades of meaning. This is not a common skill. Hitchcock had it. De Palma had it (for all the good it did him). So, assuming you have this gift, what do you do with it? It is interesting to note another recent release, Blue Ruin, where we have yet another director with a very special talent. But there the similarity ends. In Blue Ruin, the director ultimately produced a spectacular piece of entertainment, the audience is hooked until the final scene. Villeneuve has gone a different route. The source material and indeed the movie itself are shockingly self-indulgent and, at the end of the day, not especially satisfying. Sure Gyllenhaal does a great job but that is not enough. At the end of the film, the audience has more in common with a passing motorist who "rubbernecks" a crash site (double meaning intended) than a film-goer who has just been entertained.

An Addicting Mind-Bender from the Director of PRISONERS

[brando647 · 8/10 · 17 October 2014]

Denis Villeneuve garnered a lot of attention for his mainstream success with PRISONERS, starring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal, but it was it smaller, more obscure release that I wanted to see. ENEMY was released around the same time as PRISONERS but never saw a national release and I had to wait for the home video release to finally catch it. Watching it, I figured out why it never went mainstream. Most general audiences don't like something they can't understand, and ENEMY is probably best described as a mental cluster fu…mess. It has a surface plot that's easy enough to understand but the film is loaded with symbolism and deeper themes. Most of which can't be discussed without entering spoiler territory so I won't touch on it much, but this is a movie that inspires discussion or…at the very least…will leave you contemplating it long after it ends. I know my first viewing led to two days of thought trying to decipher what I'd seen and it wasn't until I scoured the Internet, reading over the frustration of others and the myriad of proposed meanings, that I felt I'd come to an understanding. But that's me and my obsessive nature, and others can do their own research. On the surface, ENEMY is about history teacher Adam Bell (Gyllenhaal). Adam is suggested a film from a work colleague that he might enjoy and becomes obsessed when an extra in the film looks exactly like him. He tracks the actor down, Anthony (also Gyllenhaal), and discovers they're physically identical in every way. And then it gets weird.

At first impression, ENEMY is a very depressing film. It's incredibly dark with lots of shadows and harsh lighting, and the entire movie has this bizarre yellow tint to it. Everything is has an unnerving yellow sickness to it. And the characters…well, no one is happy here. Adam is a depressing little man. He doesn't say much and he's very socially awkward. He's got a beautiful girlfriend named Mary (Mélanie Laurent) but there's some unknown tension between the two of them. She seems to come to his barren apartment every night and the two of them spend a minimal amount of time together before moving to the bedroom, and she always seems to leave in anger or exasperation when it's through. Anthony is more outgoing, more confident. He's married to a beautiful woman (Sarah Gadon) in a crumbling marriage racked with previous infidelities on his part. She seems hopeful that he's changed but the recent events where he hides his meeting with Adam have her wondering if he's returned to old habits. Everyone's pretty miserable but Adam finds hope for something interesting when he encounters his doppelganger. Whatever it was that piqued his interest, it fades fast as the two come face-to-face and Adam immediately regrets it. Anthony immediately moves to do what pretty much any one of us would probably do if we discovered we had an exact duplicate somewhere in the world with a beautiful girlfriend.

The surface plot is simple enough but there is so much more boiling beneath the surface of ENEMY. Honestly, I'd seen it twice and couldn't quite piece it together on my own. I only came to full understanding after doing some additional searching around the web for interpretations. I didn't have to do all the supplemental research. The movie's was perfectly fine as a piece of head-scratcher entertainment. I wanted to do it. I found ENEMY so enthralling that I wanted to know more. It's a very slow moving movie and spends most of the first half establishing the atmosphere and building the suspension but then it grabs you and you can't stop watching because you're so interested in seeing how it'll all play out. At least, I was. Jake Gyllenhaal is amazing in the dual role. I was impressed with Sam Rockwell in Duncan Jones' MOON but Rockwell was essentially playing the same character interacting with itself. Gyllenhaal invests such seamless separate personalities into Adam and Anthony that they truly feel like two individual men. He's done an incredible job with ENEMY and I hope he gets some accolades for it. Mélanie Laurent isn't given much as Mary, but Sarah Gadon is undeniably sympathetic as Anthony's pregnant, hopeful wife Helen. Every involved brings their best to the table, making ENEMY one of the better hidden gems I've found in the past year's independent film selection. It's not going to be a film for everyone but anyone who enjoys a film that leaves you contemplating it after the credits roll should give ENEMY a chance.

Wanted to like it

[zakonline · 6/10 · 25 March 2017]

After watching Jake Gyllenhaal's absorbing performance in "Nighcrawler" and Denis Villeneuve's amazing "Arrival", I came here expecting to be blown away.

I was sadly underwhelmed. The whole thing feels, to me, poorly (or dare I say lazily) put together. It tries too hard to be sophisticated and ends up a pile of pretentious, airy-fairy mumbo jumbo.

This film brings back memories of Spike Jonze's far superior "Adaptation", a movie which I put off watching for a long time but when I got round to it, easily became one of my favourites.

Arty Farty

[left_us_silent · 1/10 · 10 January 2022]

That's all it is. A really wanky film jam packed with symbolism and metaphors. Especially the ending. Plus lighting so bad I could barely see what was happening in a lot of the scenes. Such a waste of time watching this rubbish.

'Chaos is order yet undeciphered'

[gradyharp · 10/10 · 27 September 2014]

Portuguese author José Saramago (1922 – 2010), whose celebrated novels can be seen as allegories and commonly present subversive perspectives on historic events, emphasizing the human factor (BLINDNESS, SEEING, THE STONE RAFT, THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO Jesus Christ, DEATH WITH INTERRUPTIONS, THE CAVE, ALL THE NAMES, CAIN etc), published THE DOUBLE in 2002: it took more than 10 years before being transformed for the screen by Javier Gullón and directed by Canadian Denis Villeneuve. For those who remain under the spell of Saramago's strange and seductively intelligent writing this film will satisfy. For those who prefer linear story lines of everyday possibilities the film will likely not find an appreciative audience. This is a film that demands the full attention of the viewer and the acceptance of alternative ways of viewing reality and alternative reality.

Living in Toronto, Adam Bell Jake Gyllenhaal) is a college history professor, a loner, routiner, whose contact with the world outside the classroom is limited to life with his live in girlfriend Mary (Mélanie Laurent). A fellow teacher (Joshua Peace), apparently attempting to open Adam's vistas, recommends he watch films and recommends a particular film to Adam. When Adam watches the film he notes an actor playing a bellhop who looks like Adam. He becomes obsessed with finding out about this double of his. He learns that the actor's stage name is Daniel Saint Claire, whose legal name is Anthony Claire (again Jake Gyllenhaal). Claire is a Toronto based actor with only a few on-screen credits, and is married to a woman named Helen (Sarah Gadon) who is six months pregnant. Adam becomes obsessed with meeting Claire, who he learns upon first sighting that they look exactly the same, from the facial hair to a scar each has, but Claire who seemingly better adjusted than Adam. Their lives become intertwined as Claire himself ends up becoming obsessed with Adam, but in a slightly different way. Is Adam viewing his alternate real self (a married man with a child on the way) and escaping his reality with an affair with Mary? It is left for the viewer to decide.

The atmosphere created by the actors (Gyllenhaal is excellent as are Laurent, Gadon, and Isabella Rossellini who plays Claire's - or Adam's? - mother), the cinematography by Nicolas Bolduc and the music score by Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans are stunning. The introduction of a tarantula motif adds further mystery to this vivid film. A film for adventuresome thinkers who enjoy being challenged. Grady Harp, September 14

seeing double

[lee_eisenberg · 7/10 · 11 August 2014]

What made Denis Villeneuve's "Enemy" most interesting was that it didn't end how I expected it to. Throughout much of the movie I kept thinking "I know exactly where this is going," but it didn't go like that. It's not a great movie, but I thought that it was worth seeing. I saw a connection to Villeneuve's "Incendies", in which the son and daughter of an immigrant from an unidentified Arab country try to find out their family history and get an unpleasant surprise (I viewed the movie as a look at the roots of Arab Spring). The less said about Villeneuve's disgusting "Prisoners", the better.

So while it's not a masterpiece, it's still a fun, mind-bending movie. I've never read any of José Saramago's work but now I'd like to. Jake Gyllenhaal and Mélanie Laurent (Shoshana Dreyfuss in "Inglourious Basterds") have been making a lot of good movies.

You shouldn't need a 3 page long explanation

[kadenkgcampbell · 1/10 · 28 October 2021]

You shouldn't need a 3 page long explanation to understand this God Awful movie. I love slow movies but this felt like a never ending funeral. Waste of time.