I like Denis Villeneuve‘s movies. He is one of the directors who manages to combine quality and audience success. I had not seen before ‘Enemy‘ (filmed in 2013) and now, after watching it, I got a favourite among the Canadian director’s films. At least so far. At only 90 minutes, ‘Enemy‘ is somewhat of an exception in Villeneuve‘s career, a film that can baffle and disappoint part of the audiences who applaud his highly successful films. Not me. Starting from a novel by Portuguese writer Jose Saramago, Villeneuve created a psychological and erotic thriller that can be interpreted in different ways not only by each viewer but also by the same viewer every time it is watched, or every time we think about it. It is one of those movies that accompanies their viewers even after watching. There are quite a lot of decoding variants of the film and explanations of some scenes or metaphors present in ‘Enemy‘ that can be read on the Internet. I can also add a few different ones that came to my mind during or after watching.
What happens on screen? Apparently, it’s a simple story. Adam (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a history professor at a university in Toronto, a not-so-enthusiastic and not-so-inspired professor who teaches courses on the history of dictatorships and mental control over the population of these societies. He lives in a not very tidy apartment and maintains a relationship which seems mainly based on sex and not too happy with a beautiful blonde. He is not a fan of cinema (lack of time? lack of enthusiasm?) but a colleague recommends him a movie to watch on DVD. With this occasion, he discovers the existence of an actor, Anthony, who seems to be his perfect copy. Anthony is not a very successful actor, but he seems well placed materially (his house is much more luxurious and tidy than Adam’s), he also has a relationship with a beautiful blonde with whom he is married, who is also pregnant, and to whom he is not very faithful. The two will meet. I stop here, not only because I don’t want to commit the sin of revealing the plot of a thriller, but also because whatever I tell, even what I’ve written so far, is just one of the many possible interpretations of what viewers see. The movie is a combination of dream and reality, with surreal symbols and thriller elements, a game of mirrors but not with a single mirror (the hero and his copy) but several, each creating a possible reality.
Denis Villeneuve managed to make a special and mysterious film, which is interpreted and lived differently by each of its viewers. He is helped not only by the clever writing of the script but also by the impeccable acting of Jake Gyllenhaal, an actor I really like, and whose double role Adam / Anthony allows him to perform a recital of ambiguity, insecurity, confrontation between real and imaginary. Appearing in a supporting role is an actress that I love a lot, from another generation, Isabella Rossellini. Hers is a role that includes one single scene and one phone call, both providing possible keys to interpreting the story. There are a few horror moments and horror props (borrowed from the art of Louise Bourgeois) in the film, but the most hallucinatory effect is created by the cinematography combining the functional grey of the urban environment with a yellow reminding the sandstorms from the Sahara, for those who experienced such events. ‘Enemy‘ is a film that deserves to be watched and watched again, but which also deserves to be lived again in the imagination and thought about after watching.