Enemy (2013)

• Year: 2013
• Released: 06 Feb 2014
• Country: Canada, Spain, France
• Adwords: 17 wins & 23 nominations
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2316411/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/Enemy
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/enemy
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: R
• Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
• Runtime: 91 min
• Writer: José Saramago, Javier Gullón
• Director: Denis Villeneuve
• Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mélanie Laurent, Sarah Gadon
• Keywords: based on novel or book, infidelity, pregnancy, surrealism, nightmare,

	6.9/10
	61/100

Enemy Storyline

Adam Bell is a Toronto area History college professor. He is a rather somber man, largely because he is stuck in a routine, which includes a relationship with his live-in girlfriend, Mary. While watching a rental movie, he spots an actor in a bit part that looks like him. 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. Claire is a Toronto based actor with only a few on-screen credits, and is married to a woman named Helen who is currently several months pregnant. Adam then 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 outwardly is more “put together” than Adam. Their lives become intertwined as Claire himself ends up becoming obsessed with Adam, but in a slightly different way.

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Enemy Movie Reviews

An Addicting Mind-Bender from the Director of PRISONERS

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.

‘Chaos is order yet undeciphered’

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

Given the plot, this should have been so much better.

Adam is a history professor who is shocked to see a film with an actor who looks just like him. Because of this, he tries to contact the guy…only to have the man’s wife think Adam IS Anthony. So, apparently they not only look identical but they sound identical as well. Where does this go next? Well, I guarantee 100% you won’t guess if you’ve never seen the story!!

To me, Jake Gyllenhaal is one of the most unusual and interesting actors today. So often he picks strange non-mainstream projects that are incredibly good, such as “Donnie Darko”, “Source Code”, “Night Crawler” and “Prisoners”. Because of this, I often seek out his films as I know they will be treats.

Unfortunately, while “Enemy” is certainly unusual, and that is a plus, the film itself didn’t work all that well for me. This is because the film lacked energy and instead of action and excitement, the film nearly put me to sleep. Even worse, the music really helped lull me to semi-consciousness!