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Film Review: “Enemy” (only at Lefont Theater in Sandy Springs, GA)

by Phil Hogan…
 
What would you do if you discovered there was somebody out there who looked exactly like you? They might have a different occupation and significant other, but physically, they were your double. Would you make an attempt to contact them, or maybe live their life for a moment? This is the intriguing premise behind Denis Villeneuve’s film “Enemy”, shot before but released after his star studded thriller “Prisoners”, which also featured Jake Gyllenhaal.
 
This time around, Gyllenhaal plays a college history professor whose life seems to be caught in a spiral of repetitive boredom. He goes back and forth repeating the same lectures for different students and having awkward sex with his girlfriend (played by Mélanie Laurent). One day, a talkative colleague makes a random movie recommendation, and Gyllenhaal notices that one of the background actors looks exactly like him. He soon becomes obsessed with this notion of having a double, and tracks down the actor he so closely resembles.
 
With the task of a dual role, Gyllenhaal convincingly pulls off the notion of playing two separate characters, focusing in on certain mannerisms and vocal differences. However, the film leaves many elements open to interpretation. “Enemy” is not so much about taking the story into a definitive clear direction, but rather about developing a mood and sense of foreboding that is unnerving yet hypnotic. While the 2002 novel by José Saramago might offer a more literal explanation for the proceedings, Villeneuve’s adaptation (written by Javier Gullón) prefers to leave a lot of things unanswered. An extremely odd encounter in an elevator during one sequence is a perfect example of the film’s deliberate ambiguity.
 
Most films that take on this mysterious approach to storytelling can often come across as heavy-handed or pretentious. With “Enemy”, Villeneuve and Gyllenhaal showcase a quiet confidence behind and in front of the camera that comes across as something familiar yet all its own. In fact, the film features very little dialogue and achieves a lot of its feelings of dread through the haunting score composed by Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans. In style and approach, it might resemble the films of David Lynch, Polanski’s urban thrillers, or Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation”. Those films are only a reference point; “Enemy” is its own unique beast.
 
Like its very retro poster, the film is shot with a smog-like tint that drapes the action in yellows and browns. Filmed in Toronto, the director shoots architecture and skylines in a very stylized way, giving the characters a Kafkaesque element as they are dwarfed by their urban surroundings. While college academic buildings and high rise condos are turned into menacing structures, you almost get the sense that “Enemy” could either take place in the near future or the recent past. The nightmarish imagery is disturbing, and does things with spiders that I will probably never forget.
 
“Enemy” is only playing at Lefont theaters in Sandy Springs, and will probably not venture to any other theaters in the metro area. I highly recommend viewing this film, if only for the sake that it will be unlike anything else you will see this year.