Enemy

I will apologize right up front, there was no proof reading of this review today.  I suppose that is how the cookie crumbles from time to time, but for it to get posted today it just needed to be done and out of the way.  It was a very complex movie and my brain just was not getting off the starting line today, which made reviewing it quite the difficult task.

While some people enjoy straight forward movies, there are also some people out there who enjoy the mystery and riddle to a film which does less storytelling, and focuses more on leaving some clues around for the audience decipher.  It can be a rewarding experience to view a film and let your brain pick up the task of plotting out possible scenarios and explanations for elements of the movie and coming up with a point of view that makes sense within the context of the story.  For the most part, Denis Villeneuve’s Enemy expertly disperses nuggets of possibility to the viewers without relying on offering its own reasoning, keeping the suspense and intrigue front and centre, demanding all of the viewer’s attention.

Enemy is a story of a history teacher named Adam (Jake Gyllenhaal) who learns that there is someone out there named Anthony (also Jake Gyllenhaal) who looks and sounds exactly like him.  Adam becomes obsessed with this and works to locate and meet his double.  As he is seeking for answers, so are we, as we gain some insight into the story that acts as both context and symbolism to view in light of Adam’s story.

Much like Prisoners, Villeneuve shows an expertise in the visual aspect of directing and has a great sense of what to include in shots and what to leave out.  He has an ability to insert props and set pieces into scenes to inform the audience as to what is going on, as well as a using them to inform us on the characters themselves.  Very little explanation comes in the form of dialogue in this film, and the reason for that is the proficiency Villeneuve has in visual storytelling.  In fact, there are long sections of this film where there is little to no dialogue, and all we have to guide us is what we see.

Another talent of Villeneuve is in how he uses filters and light to tell the story and set the mood.  In the life of Adam, everything has a yellowish tinge to it, and is propelled by the type of lighting that Adam uses in his house.  We get a very drab and colourless feel about Adam as an individual, and even the colour of yellow could be in reference to his timid demeanour.

Jake Gyllenhaal, as he is apt to do, delivers a very strong performance and is a natural at communicating his emotions and thoughts with his face and posture.  We really get to see this skill shine in the scenes where both of his characters are face to face, and it is the subtleties in Gyllenhaal’s acting that distinguishes the personalities and works to set the tone of the scene.

The wonderful inclusion of the subtle is what really makes this film, and it is when it deviates from it that it loses its magic.  There are moments in the film where perhaps the use of music feels a bit abrasive, that we are slugged over the head with it at moments so that we know exactly what we are supposed to be feeling.  It felt to be a bit of a shame that with such a wonderful flow visually there would be a bit of a strain coming from the audio side of things, but this never reached the level of being an enormous distraction, and it did not hinder my enjoyment of the film very much.  It more just seemed to counter the softer tone of insinuation that had been established.

The big issue that the film had was with the consistency of the characters.  In the end, there is so much mystery to the story and we are left trying to come up with interpretations for what happened in the movie.  That is the sort of thing that would drive some people mad, but I am fine with it as long as there are theories that we can work with that makes sense with what we have seen.  Every theory that my friend and I were able to come up with were not consistent with how the characters acted in the film, and even taking the movie at face value alone sees the characters acting in ways that fight the story.  To go into it in any detail would be throwing spoilers on the table, so I will keep from doing such things.

The end of the film, while it caught me off guard, left me with a lot to think about and discuss on the ride home from the theatre.  For better or worse, is there really any more that you could ask for from a movie than to give you lots to talk about?  Unfortunately, a lot of the conversation continually reverted back to the fact that the characters did not feel as though they acted in line with who they were throughout the movie, a factor which made truly enjoying this movie a very difficult task.

Rating – 3 out of 4 stars