This is not a normal movie. It doesn't follow a straight line, it's full of deliberately vague metaphors and eerie imagery, you're never quite sure where it's going (even when the road looks familiar), and the last five minutes are as strange and bewildering as the first.
I seem to enjoy movies like this, by and large. I appreciate that there are filmmakers and actors who put effort into making a vivid and unique film experience.
That's what I think Enemy is, without saying it's good or bad. It is very vivid and unique, as well as enthralling and maddening. Mostly, it feels like an Alfred Hitchcock or Orson Welles movie, then it will unexpectedly veer into Eraserhead territory.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays a teacher who watches a movie one night and sees an actor in the movie who looks like him. Exactly like him. Out of a seemingly irrational sense of paranoia and curiosity, the teacher becomes obsessed with meeting his apparent doppleganger. I'd say this is where things get weird, but things are weird before we even find out who either Gyllenhaal is.
This is a movie that shows you things, but only provides a sliver of information for you to process the things you see. This led many viewers, myself included, to believe the movie is about something that seems fairly straightforward instead of what it's really about, which is apparently hinted throughout the movie's various clues, images and double meanings. While I admire movies that are able to trick me like a magician, I can see how this film's conclusion may piss off a lot of people.
Its cons: Not sure it succeeded in establishing whatever themes or allegories it was aiming for. Spider/sexual imagery, a little on the nose. The story seems to focus on one thing that it's not really about, while what it's really about is made to be obscure. Slow.
Its pros: Two excellent Jake Gyllenhaal performances in one movie. Excellent cinematography, direction, and editing. Melanie Laurent and Sarah Gadon in various states of undress. A compelling, ominous mystery. I loved the ending; you gotta have balls to end this movie like that.
I may have enjoyed Enemy on an aesthetic level, but it's not a film I'd recommend to the average filmgoer. It's a movie with the mood and atmosphere of a nightmare. Most people would prefer not to linger in nightmares.
An unsolvable puzzle of dualities
This is not a normal movie. It doesn't follow a straight line, it's full of deliberately vague metaphors and eerie imagery, you're never quite sure where it's going (even when the road looks familiar), and the last five minutes are as strange and bewildering as the first.
I seem to enjoy movies like this, by and large. I appreciate that there are filmmakers and actors who put effort into making a vivid and unique film experience.
That's what I think Enemy is, without saying it's good or bad. It is very vivid and unique, as well as enthralling and maddening. Mostly, it feels like an Alfred Hitchcock or Orson Welles movie, then it will unexpectedly veer into Eraserhead territory.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays a teacher who watches a movie one night and sees an actor in the movie who looks like him. Exactly like him. Out of a seemingly irrational sense of paranoia and curiosity, the teacher becomes obsessed with meeting his apparent doppleganger. I'd say this is where things get weird, but things are weird before we even find out who either Gyllenhaal is.
This is a movie that shows you things, but only provides a sliver of information for you to process the things you see. This led many viewers, myself included, to believe the movie is about something that seems fairly straightforward instead of what it's really about, which is apparently hinted throughout the movie's various clues, images and double meanings. While I admire movies that are able to trick me like a magician, I can see how this film's conclusion may piss off a lot of people.
Its cons: Not sure it succeeded in establishing whatever themes or allegories it was aiming for. Spider/sexual imagery, a little on the nose. The story seems to focus on one thing that it's not really about, while what it's really about is made to be obscure. Slow.
Its pros: Two excellent Jake Gyllenhaal performances in one movie. Excellent cinematography, direction, and editing. Melanie Laurent and Sarah Gadon in various states of undress. A compelling, ominous mystery. I loved the ending; you gotta have balls to end this movie like that.
I may have enjoyed Enemy on an aesthetic level, but it's not a film I'd recommend to the average filmgoer. It's a movie with the mood and atmosphere of a nightmare. Most people would prefer not to linger in nightmares.