Released: February 6th,
2014
Rated: R
Distributor: A24
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mélanie Laurent, Sarah
Gadon, Isabella Rossellini
Directed by: Denis Villeneuve
Written by: Javier Gullón
Personal Bias Alert: expected it to be difficult to understand, doesn’t like spiders
3.8 of 10
The
problem with mysteries like the one Enemy
plays with is that you have to drop the right amount of bread crumbs as you
tell the story. If you leave too much,
you give the answer away, but if you leave too few, the ending won’t make
sense. To complicate matters more, everyone’s
‘right amount’ will be different depending on their knowledge of things like
cultural references and genre conventions.
I know this isn’t a new observation to anyone, and you might be rolling
your eyes at me thinking that I’m about to go on some long-winded explanation
of a very basic concept. Well, that eye-rolling
state is exactly what I was in while watching Enemy, because it left far too many bread crumbs as it told its
story.
A
brief explanation of the plot is best as the film does try to be mysterious
about its narrative. Suffice it to say
that Jake Gyllenhaal plays two men who look exactly alike, and the reason for
this is the enigma the film ponderously unravels. You never get a ‘Hallelujah, the explanation
is this’ moment. Instead, it wants you
to think about its intentions, its meanings, and its odd spider metaphor. Seriously, spiders real and imagined pop up
several times in this film, and it’s as heavy-handed and simplistic a metaphor as
most everything in this movie.
Writer
Javier Gullón really put all his eggs into the mystery basket with this script,
choosing not to expand on characters or themes beyond what was absolutely
necessary. The film expects you to be
incredibly interested in figuring out who the two men are in relation to each
other, apparently not realizing that some of us would figure out the basics of
what’s happening pretty early on and not care too much about the details. That’s the boat I was in, even pinpointing what
I still think was the major theme of the film in the first 30 or so minutes, being
left to slog through the next hour plus without getting much for it. Frankly, a character finding their double isn’t
unique; the 2013 film The Double (in
which the character aptly finds his double) is based on a novella of the same
name by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, which also happens to be the name of the José
Saramago novel this film is based on.
What that other film and I’m guessing the two novelists understood was
that this setup isn’t enough on its own to be interesting, and more must be
done with it. Enemy doesn’t share this insight, so it does little besides set up
the scenario and watch it playout.
The
fault of the mystery being so obvious lies with director Denis Villeneuve, as
much of the tipoffs about what’s really going on stems from how the material was
presented. There’s a sort of double
warning at the beginning of the film that the material may be difficult to
discern: first we get a title card
talking about there being order in chaos, then we get a heightened, almost dreamlike
opening sequence that’s wordless but chock full of metaphors that slap you in
the face with the message ‘you don’t understand what I mean yet, but I’m
important!’ Either one by itself would
get a thinking man’s moviegoer alert and watchful. Together, they just get your head churning on
overdrive. Villeneuve proceeds to shoot
the first half using such carefully constructed shots that it’s hard to miss
what he’s hinting at. Perhaps if he hadn’t
gotten the audience so engaged or if he had hidden his meanings better then the
film could’ve been more enigmatic. As
is, it’s just obvious.
At
least if you become unengaged you can sit back and watch Jake Gyllenhaal craft
two distinctly different characters.
Costumes do help distinguish them, but their gate is what really sets
them apart: one a bit plodding and
hunched while the other moves with purpose and confidence. It’s not anything too big, which makes the
time spent examining it rewarding.
If
you don’t come up with a plausible narrative explanation quickly, then this
film might maintain your interest purely to figure out what the hell is going
on. Many people seem to be fascinated by
this, but others, like myself, sniff out a shallow meaning underneath all the
weirdness, which makes it wholly uninteresting.
Other
Notes:
Ø I
enjoyed the waxing and waning presence of the score.
Ø Random
Isabella Rossellini!
Ø I
watched Chris Stuckmann’s explanation of the movie thinking I might’ve missed
something. Unfortunately, all it
revealed to me was a better explanation of the spider metaphor, which didn’t get
too far away from my own and certainly didn’t add anything to my appreciation
of the film. Here’s the link to Chris’s
breakdown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9AWkqRwd1I
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