This is not a film to watch late at night by yourself, I can assure you that much. Denis Villeneuve's Enemy is an incredibly strange and thought-provoking film that is honestly more confusing than satisfying to me. Adapted from the novel by the same name by José Saramago, this movie advertises itself as a classic doppelganger drama but attempts to be so much more, unsuccessfully in my own opinion. While Jake Gyllenhaal gives (two) fantastic performances as expected, the script that guides this film is ultimately its weakest aspect. Despite me not particularly enjoying Villeneuve's style, there is no other director that I could see telling this story; a story that will truly leave you shaking your head and wondering what the fuck just happened.
Adam Bell (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a public university professor in Toronto whose teachings seem to be as mundane as his personal life. Living with his girlfriend Mary (Mélanie Laurent), Adam rents a local movie and discovers an actor named Anthony Claire (Jake Gyllenhaal) that looks exactly like him. After becoming obsessed with meeting and communicating with the actor, Anthony, who lives in a small apartment with his pregnant wife Helen (Sarah Gadon), becomes obsessed with Adam's affairs as the two men's lives begin spiraling into each other. This script, written by Javier Gullón, is the film's most confusing aspect. There are many movies who have tackled the art of obsession such as this one, but I feel like none of those other movies have been nearly as vague as this one. My main issue with this story is how little meat is on the film's bones. I have never been a fan of ambiguity in terms of storytelling, especially when it comes to such basic elements like the plot. Themes and morals will always be picked up differently by different audience members, but when it comes to the basic premise of telling a story, I have always believed that it needs to be somewhat straightforward. Call me a boring filmmaker because of that, but there is nothing in this world that baffles me more than lazy writing. Enemy has such a minor amount of dialogue and such a major reliance on Villeneuve's direction that I felt a disconnect between those two creative forces. Not to mention the thematic element of the ginormous spiders in this story that was not even present in the original novel. I understand making this thriller a bit more horror-esque by throwing in some creepy element to keep the audience guessing, but when something as stupefying as massive tarantulas is introduced, I feel like it should be given more focus than just two terrifying shots.
At the risk of being possibly ostracized by every person in the film community, I hate to announce that I am simply not a fan of Denis Villeneuve. From the few films of his that I have seen, I just can not stand by and pretend to enjoy his style for the sake of the acceptance of fanboys. His directorial style is peculiarly interesting for sure, but the stories that he chooses to tell just do not grab my attention. And when they do, the subject matter is something so offbeat and so theoretical that I find it incredibly hard to grasp or get behind. Leaving the audience dumbfounded in their seats and scattering to pick up the pieces of a story is never something that I enjoy in a film and that seems to be a trademark of this French-Canadian film director. There is no doubt that Villeneuve is a master of unspoken suspense and I could definitely feel that throughout this film. Along with the hauntingly great performances from Gyllenhaal, I was thoroughly spooked during its entirety. That doesn't change the fact, however, that this story's elements could not decide on a path. If this movie were to decide on being a doppelganger drama and how the two men came to be, that would be interesting. If this movie were to decide on being an Invasion of the Body Snatchers-type film about spiders that inhabit the bodies of humans, that would be interesting (maybe less so). This movie just could not decide what it wanted to be and because of that, it leaves it up to the audience to decipher what its meaning could possibly be. I did enjoy the themes of obsession and the dangers of your own subconscious, but the often nonsensical narrative did not seem to enforce them at all.
Enemy is an interesting film to say the least, but the most I can say is that I probably will not be spending time on another watch. Despite this film's efforts to get me to think profoundly about the personal choices I make and the dangerous disease that is obsession, the motifs chosen to represent these themes threw me for the worst kind of loop. Unless you are dead-set on seeing two different Jake Gyllenhaals interact (which any rational person would be), then I would frankly not recommend this film.
My Rating: ★★★
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