Enemy

Directed by Denis Villeneuve.

2014. Rated R, 90 minutes.

Cast:

Jake Gyllenhaal

Melanie Laurent

Sarah Gadon

Isabella Rossellini

Kedar Brown

Stephen R. Hart

Joshua Peace

Jane Moffat

We've all watched one of those movies. I mean the ones that leave us sitting there dumbfounded for a few minutes after they end. If you watched with someone else, you both look at each other with your WTF faces. You might even say what your faces do. One of the self-beneficial things about being a movie blogger is that even if no one reads a particular review, writing it affords me another way to figure out a particularly confusing film. If I don't get it right away, I can write my way through it. This doesn't guarantee I'll solve the puzzle, but I'll feel better about it. This is where I am with Enemy.

Since I'm going to try and figure it out as I go, might as well start at the beginning. No worries, I'm not on the way to spoiling the movie. It's just a good place to start. There, we meet Adam (Gyllenhaal), a college professor with a fairly ho-hum existence and loves his live-in girlfriend Mary (Laurent). At the urging of a colleague, he watches a particular movie. During this viewing, his world is understandably rocked when he spots an actor in a tiny role who looks exactly like him. I don't mean someone who looks similar, but exactly alike, as if he's staring into a mirror. He then does what I would've done and goes out of his way to find out who this person is. He goes another step, one which I'm not so sure I'd take and finds out where the dude lives. He even goes so far as to contact this guy. It might take me years to work up enough courage for this, but he does it all in pretty short order. The guy's name is Anthony (also Gyllenhaal) and as expected, he's kind of disturbed yet intrigued by this turn of events. Aside from being a B-movie actor, he's married with a pregnant wife, Helen (Gadon). The two men embark on a very odd game of cat-and-mouse. In fact, it's a little while before either one of them realizes they're even playing it. It's even longer before either of the women in their lives figure out what's going on.

As the movie progresses, it grows increasingly fascinating. Initially, we're drawn by a question I've already alluded to. What would I do in the same situation? Weighing their decisions against what we think our own would be carries us through the early parts of the film. We are simply intrigued by their choices. Eventually, the movie morphs into a thriller. At this point, our two leads are no longer just compelled by the other, but pitted against that person. One assumes the role of the hero, the other the villain.

Is it really so simple? Are we just meant to choose sides and root for the good guy? No. Something deeper is going on here. My first thought is that it's something akin to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and exploration of man's duality. Even this is densely layered, though. Neither side of a person is purely good or evil, but a product of the decisions he/she makes. This truth holds in regard to these two gentlemen. They're both normal guys under extraordinary circumstances making life altering decisions on the fly. As the situation escalates so does the pressure on them to make choices beneficial to them and/or their significant other. In that sense, it's a study on how people react in crisis. See? This isn't simple, but it's not daunting, either. Star Jake Gyllenhaal aids in this by delivering two distinct and excellent performances. As the college professor, he's a guy who mostly keeps to himself and tries to stay within his comfort zone. He's easily rattled when something out of the ordinary happens. In the small-time actor role, he's much more alpha-male, confident and macho. Obviously, the two characters are written to be different, even dressed that way. The reason it works, however, is because of Gyllenaal's efforts. He uses an entirely different demeanor and body language for each. Remarkably, he does so without rendering either guy as mere caricature. Denis Villeneuve's directing sets an appropriately somber mood. Though I commend it for not spoon-feeding us, it can be too cryptic. He spends the entirety of the film twisting our brains this way and that.

Not until the very end is our mind bent completely out of shape. It's a finale that's both as abrupt and startling as it is confounding. When the credits start rolling we've no choice but to immediately start trying to figure out what it all means. Our first inclination is to delve into our knowledge of symbolism. How could we not? We're zealously invited to by something begging to be analyzed. And we try, after getting over the initial shock of what it is we see. Around and around we go, trying to make sense of it. We even replay the entire thing in our head. And...I got nothing. There is little doubt that you are smarter than I, good reader, and have come up with your own sound interpretation. Therefore, I have no problem admitting I took to the internet to see what others thought. One, slate.com, purports Enemy to be about people unknowingly living in a totalitarian state similar to Invasion of the Body Snatchers. A thread over at reddit.com, suggests that the entire thing plays out in the subconscious of one of our two leads. The blog Shot on 35 suggest that Enemy deals with a fear of commitment on the part of one character with a split personality. Which one do I agree with most? I dunno. They all have their pros and cons that make them both plausible and dubious. Whenever you see it, tell me what you make of it. If you've already seen it tell me now.