“In order to be created, a work of art must first make use of the dark forces of the soul” — Albert Camus
Darkness is an inevitability. No matter what the metaphorical or literal sense is, darkness cannot exist without light. Likewise you cannot have the idea/illusion of control without being familiar with chaos. Enemy is a study in how you don’t have to completely know what it truly going on to be able to understand it. In fact, the harder you try to hold on tight to control/understanding, the more that ends up escaping between your fingers.
Adam (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a history professor at a university with a girlfriend named Mary (Mélanie Laurent). His life is stuck in the same monotonous loop that he finds himself teaching about (history repeating and all). One day while eating lunch, he gets recommended a film by a stranger and this change in his daily cycle will lead him down a dark rabbit hole into the abstract. After renting the film, he notices one of the background actors looks exactly like him, so he quickly begins hunting him down and sowing the seeds of his own destruction/salvation. Adam finally finds his doppelgänger Anthony (Jake Gyllenhaal), but first has a run in with Anthony’s pregnant wife, Helen (Sarah Gadon), who is more than a little disturbed by the uncanny resemblance Adam bears to her husband.
After setting up a meeting, Adam and Anthony realize just how similar they are physically to each other. Confronting their identical appearance, down to sharing a scar in the same exact place, Anthony forces his way into Adam’s life by violently threatening him to let him sleep with his girlfriend in and then he’ll leave him alone. Unable to distinguish between what it real and what isn’t, he visits his mother (Isabella Rossellini) who only reassures him that he could either be crazy or schizophrenic. So what is real? What is fiction? Ultimately, does it matter which is which?
The film opens with a quote: “Chaos is order yet undeciphered.” This sets the tone, mindset, and practically over all style of the film. Director Denis Villeneuve masterfully creates a dark, gloomy world that helps to set the mood. I would say it’s similar to his other film Prisoners, except technically Enemy was made before Prisoners. In this world, there is a beautiful contrast between dark and light tones, even down to the clothes they wear. The film starts with an existentialist sentiment and it continues it through while sprinkling bits of intrigue, mystery and an ever-increasing surrealist absurdity. Much of the imagery is less figurative and more literal, which is a detriment to the aesthetic, but a supplement to those of you still trying to understand everything that is going on in the story.
Going back to the quote, the story itself is so complex that it can be perceived as nonsense to some who don’t have the ability of letting go over control. The film takes you on a mysterious ride between what is reality and sanity. Every clue in the film confirms and contradicts your suspicions and comprehension of the entire situation. Is Adam crazy? Is Anthony a twin brother or a separate personality in the same mind? Are the spiders manifestations of the darkness and hunger that is within Adam, or are there really spider/human hybrids walking around naked? You’ll never figure it out because trying to rationalize the seeming irrational is and exercise in futility.
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There is one indisputable truth in this film and that is that Jake Gyllenhaal is in his prime here. He plays the complexity of two completely differing characters with a skill and ease that keeps us enthralled throughout the whole film. The pacing in the film is a mellow, but a tensely strong build up that is made all the more interesting by watching Gyllenhaal investigate, rationalize, and altogether lose his mind on-screen. His Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde dichotomy comes off so effortless that you would believe he is actually a functioning person with multiple personality disorder, or has a real life evil twin.
Enemy is not going to answer any questions. Why? Because that would be boring, unmystifying, and too obvious. Instead, you’ll be thinking about the film long after you’ve gone home, slept on it, and woken up the next day. Don’t worry, you’ll want to/feel the compulsive need to re-watch the film with a notepad and try to decipher every hidden clue you encounter. If that’s not a sign of good film making, I don’t know what is.
RATING: ★★★★★★★★★(9/10 stars)
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