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Enemy Movie Review : Vishal and Arya star in a watchable thriller that is not boring

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Navaneethakrishnan K 904 days ago

Very nice movie and fantastic experience while watching this movie we are already know many lines but when we saw this type of movie again and again we would know which is good or bad so many ingredients mixed in this movie.

Sylent Screamer 615 912 days ago

one time watch movie, how come directors & producers make fool of public by saying Singapore and shot most of the movie in Dubai , atleast the director should have made sure not to capture Dubai landmarks .. over the top action scenes like always in Vishal movies ..story was interesting

Natarajan 919 days ago

In the recent times, Vishal's movies are very technical and very interesting. I enjoyed the movie after a very long time. Like "Irumbu Therai" vishal has given an another interesting movie. Every scene has a reason behind it and you will enjoy the movie for the full duration.

Meyyappan Ramanath 930 days ago

R Sridhar 712 938 days ago

Below average movie .. Over hype given ...

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‘Enemy’ movie review: A convoluted cat-and-mouse action drama

Anand shankar’s film, after an elaborate and promising start, fizzles out after its leading men are introduced.

Updated - November 09, 2021 11:01 am IST

Published - November 04, 2021 05:30 pm IST

Vishal and Arya in ‘Enemy’

The first half hour of Enemy , directed by Anand Shankar, has a promising prologue. It reminded me of Ullasam as it involves two fathers and their respective schoolgoing sons.

Ramalingam (played by Thambi Ramiah) is so cautious about his son, Chozha, that he puts the coconut inside a small sackcloth bag before breaking it in a temple, lest a piece of shell pierces his son's eye. His mockers even give him the moniker 'Risk' Ramalingam. His risk-averseness is not merely a gimmick. Anand, who has also written the film, provides a solid reason for why he is the way he is.

Meanwhile, Ramalingam's newly moved in neighbour, Paari (Prakash Raj), is a retired cop who has overcome assassination attempts and suffered bullet injuries. Paari wants his son, Rajeev, to be strong, bold and brilliant and thus trains him to be a cop. The training includes solving 4 by 4 cubes, low-plank-crawls under an obstacle and other exercises. When young Rajeev complains of pain during the plank crawl, Paari adds more weight on his back. "You should learn to endure pain. Only then can you overcome your enemies," he tells his son.

Chozha, meanwhile, imbibes Paari's lessons secretly from next door. He even flicks one of the many cubes and solves it overnight. Ramalingam because he wants his son to stay away from risks. And, Rajeev, because Chozha is better than him. He dislikes Paari praising him more.

Anand takes about half an hour for this setup, even if it delays the introduction of the stars — Vishal and Arya. The writing is layered too. It is the story of two single fathers wanting their sons to be like themselves. There is also jealously brewing within Rajeev because his father appreciates Chozha more than him. At this point, a mysterious murder separates the two boys.

• Cast: Vishal, Arya, Thambi Ramaiah, Prakash Raj, Mamta Mohandas, and more
• Director: Anand Shankar
• Storyline: How jealousy turns a boyhood competition into a life-and-death rivalry

This was a solid setup for a cat-and-mouse game between Chozha and Rajeev (at least that is what the trailer and the title promised).

But, like a Deepavali firecracker that sparks for a long time, raising our anticipation, only to fizzle out, the film starts to fumble after this promising build-up.

Anand manages to keep us guessing on a few occasions. For instance, just as we predict the film to be a game of oneupmanship between a cop and a thief, we are proven wrong.

But soon after the main stars of Enemy , Vishal and Arya, appear on screen, the film starts its descent. By now, Vishal looks after a supermarket in Singapore with his father. But he is also proficient in hacking, superb in hand-to-hand combat, and is an excellent marksman. If the Avengers were recruiting in Singapore, he would have been a frontrunner.

Arya, meanwhile, has become one of the world's deadliest assassins. Despite the muscles, Arya lacks the menace of a deadly assassin. Even when he threatens to kill a bunch of children, he evokes neither fear nor anger. The women in the movie, Mamta Mohandas and Mirnalini Ravi, hardly have anything to do.

The writing also slackens after the setup. Anand brings into the plot the problems of Tamil migrants and Indo-China politics for reasons little known to us.

Despite the implications of protagonists being geniuses, none of their acts to outdo each other is particularly clever. Maybe that is why, in the end, they abandon brains for brawn and settle their scores over a bloody brawl.

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In the two recent films that gave him an international name, Canadian director Denis Villeneuve brought an acutely concentrated vision to bear on stories of violent conflict beyond his native land. The Oscar-nominated " Incendies " concerned the horrors of war in a nameless but vividly evoked Middle Eastern country, while last year's " Prisoners " was a lacerating tale of kidnapping, terror and torture in a no less carefully described Pennsylvania town.

"Enemy," Villeneuve's latest (it was filmed between the two above-mentioned films, though it is being released after the latter), differs from the earlier works not only in being set in Canada, but also in offering a story that's ostensibly less concerned with painful real-life struggles than with dream-like subjective perplexities. Adapted by screenwriter Javier Gullon from Portuguese author Jose Saramago's novel " The Double ," the brooding, crepuscular drama features Jake Gyllenhaal (who also starred in "Prisoners") in the roles of a man and his double.

Since stories of doubles, with their long pedigree in literature and cinema, inherently belong to the realm of the fantastical, "Enemy" obviously stands apart from the traumatic real-world political and criminal traumas of its two predecessors. Less ambitious (and, at 90 minutes, far shorter) than those films, it's inevitably less impressive, more like a semi-whimsical short story by a master whose real forte is challenging realistic novels of epic scope.

Yet that's not to suggest the three films are entirely different. Also tinged with the quality of nightmares, the violence in "Incendies" and "Prisoners" was, or had the feeling of being, fratricidal or internecine. In "Enemy" there's also a sense of the antagonists being closely related, whether as long separated twins, as two aspects of the same personality, or as guys who fall into a violent competition due to the accidental "kinship" of their identical looks. Which of these possibilities, if any, comprises the "real" explanation is a question the film keeps thrusting back to the viewer.

The movie's look has the color of nicotine stains, or a smoggy freeway at dusk. Adam Bell (Gyllenhaal) has brown hair, a brown beard and inveterately wears rumpled brown or tan clothes. He lives in a vast brown city called Toronto and teaches history in an institutionally light-brownish classroom that's only half-full of students. In one of the few lecture snippets we hear from him, he tells his class that the rulers of Rome gave its citizens bread and circuses for purposes of distraction. With the blank affect of a man who's bored with every aspect of his life, Adam himself seems in need of distraction. Which is perhaps why, one day in the faculty room, he takes another teacher's advice to seek out a certain movie on DVD, one that promises to lift his spirits.

Watching the film later, Adam notices something strange in the background of one scene: an actor playing a bellhop has his own face. Startled, he does some research and discovers that the actor, Anthony Claire, has only three films to his credit. After finding out where the man lives, Adam begins calling his home, and initially gets only hostile, suspicious reactions from Anthony and his pregnant wife, Helen ( Sarah Gadon ).

Before they ever meet, we see that Adam and Anthony are leading roughly parallel lives. Neither seems professionally fulfilled. They are underachievers facing the approach of middle age with a glum dissatisfaction that perhaps masks an underlying anger, a desire to lash at the world—or someone else. Both men are also involved with blonde women who resemble each other both physically and in their difficulties with their partners. While the angry sex and icy silences shared by Adam and his girlfriend Mary ( Melanie Laurent ) signal a relationship about to implode, Helen evidently agonizes over bearing the child of a man she suspects of infidelity.

Once the two men encounter each other and, via the magic of special effects, inhabit the same visual space, the movie's most salient virtue comes into focus: Gyllenhaal, a very talented actor in most circumstances, here does exceptional work playing two men who are almost—but not quite—identical. The differences are small, and more emotional than physical. Anthony is meaner and more imperious, Adam more resentful and recessive. Observing these subtle contrasts offers no end of fascinations, yet we're simultaneously aware of the inevitabilities implied by the characters' competitiveness and hostility: each will try to bed the other's woman, and only one will be left alive at the end.

As noted, Villeneuve and Gullon leave the meaning of all this an open question—or perhaps several questions at once. Is the French Canadian director's tale of Anglo Canada an allegory of his culturally divided homeland? Is the cryptic story a symbolic meditation on something central to cinema, the fraught relationship between an actor and the "double" he fashions in creating a character who bears his likeness? Does it contain a whiff of Villeneuve's feelings about Canada's greatest art-film auteur prior to his arrival, David Cronenberg , whose " Dead Ringers " is one of cinema's finest tales of doubles.

Take your pick, or better yet, supply your own reading. What seems certain is that Villeneuve is a very self-conscious artist whose estimable work descends from the European high-modernist tradition of decades past. Thus, in "Enemy," we don't find a clear debt to any particular doubles-themed work of literature or cinema, but rather echoes of the concerns and stylistic penchants of directors such as Bergman, Bunuel, Polanski, Kieslowki and Antonioni (especially in the contemplation of Toronto's sprawling architectural jumble). All of those filmmakers came from an indigenous national cinema, then went on to become transnational cosmopolitan artists. The same is now happening to Villeneuve. Perhaps questions of identity and "doubleness" go with making that kind of leap.

Godfrey Cheshire

Godfrey Cheshire is a film critic, journalist and filmmaker based in New York City. He has written for The New York Times, Variety, Film Comment, The Village Voice, Interview, Cineaste and other publications.

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Enemy (2014)

Jake Gyllenhaal as Adam Bell/ Anthony St. Claire

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Mind-bending, surreal mystery with sex and language.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The movie is so surreal and elusive that any messa

The movie more or less shows two sides of one pers

We see a realistic car crash, and a few nightmaris

A scene takes place at a strange, mysterious club

Language is not heard very often, but in the film'

Characters drink casually, at home, in a backgroun

Parents need to know that Enemy is a sexy, surreal mystery from the director/actor team that made Prisoners . It features lots of female nudity, including one full-frontal shot, plus some creepy sexual imagery and the suggestion of women performing sex acts for men to watch. There are also several sex…

Positive Messages

The movie is so surreal and elusive that any messages are buried deep within. Perhaps: "curiosity killed the cat"? Other themes will be up for discussion.

Positive Role Models

The movie more or less shows two sides of one person, one aggressive and confident, and the other meek and sad. Neither is particularly admirable, though the movie could spark discussion about the different sides of our own personalities.

Violence & Scariness

We see a realistic car crash, and a few nightmarishly scary images. Otherwise, there are a few moments of characters yelling or arguing with one another.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A scene takes place at a strange, mysterious club in which women perform on stage. We hear the sounds and see some suggestions of one woman masturbating, while many men watch. The main character has sex with his girlfriend more than once; her breasts and bottom are shown. A pregnant woman is shown undressing, and her breasts are on view. Characters have sex with more than one partner. In a nightmare sequence, a fully naked woman with a spider head walks toward the camera (upside-down, on the ceiling). A character follows a strange woman down a hallway, with a close-up on her behind (she's wearing a kind of sexy, fishnet outfit).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Language is not heard very often, but in the film's final third, "f--k" is used several times. "S--t" is also heard once or twice.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Characters drink casually, at home, in a background way. A woman says, "I think I'm drunk" in one scene, and goes to bed.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Enemy is a sexy, surreal mystery from the director/actor team that made Prisoners . It features lots of female nudity, including one full-frontal shot, plus some creepy sexual imagery and the suggestion of women performing sex acts for men to watch. There are also several sex scenes between partners, and characters with more than one partner. Language is strong in the latter part of the movie, with several uses of "f--k," plus at least one use of "s--t." There's a realistic car crash, and characters shouting and arguing. Characters also drink in a casual, background way, at home. The movie is more about the mystery than the solution, and does not provide any real answers. It will be up to adventurous older teens and grown-ups to ponder the clues and reach their own conclusions. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (4)
• Kids say (10)

Based on 4 parent reviews

Dark, smart mystery

Great movie, what's the story.

Adam Bell ( Jake Gyllenhaal ) is a sad, drab history professor who gives the same lecture about dictatorships (and their repeating patterns), and goes home to the same evening routine with his girlfriend Mary ( Melanie Laurent ). One night he rents a movie and spots an actor that looks exactly like himself. He discovers the actor's name, Anthony Clair (Gyllenhaal again), and contacts him. The confident, commanding Anthony is married to the beautiful, pregnant Helen ( Sarah Gadon ). The two men appear to be exact doubles, and neither knows precisely what to make of it, until Anthony callously decides to steal Mary away for a weekend. Yet for Adam, the puzzle, involving a mysterious package and dreams about spiders, grows ever more complex.

Is It Any Good?

Oscar-nominated Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve continues his collaboration with actor Jake Gyllenhaal , following Prisoners ; the result here is much tighter but far less realistic. Indeed, ENEMY could easily be described as surreal. It's a mystery story, with mystery elements, but the movie does not provide much in the way of answers. It's more like a David Lynch film, with clues, emotions, images, ideas, and sensations coming together for one unique experience, with a bizarre, unforgettable ending.

Enemy begins with shots of a mysterious club involving women in sexual situations and spiders, and these nightmarish images continue to permeate the film. The movie also dabbles in notions of repeating patterns and doubled images, though not overtly. It's smart enough not to leave blatant clues or red herrings, anywhere. Based on a 2002 novel by Nobel Prize-winning Portuguese author Jose Saramago, it's a truly intriguing movie, sure to leave viewers pondering long after.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the sex in the movie. Does sex seem to be a healthy or loving outlet for these characters? What's the overall tone to the sexual activity in the movie?

Is the movie scary ? Creepy? How does a story that departs from reality affect you? What other movies have departed from reality, with different results?

The main character's personality traits seem to have been split, one confident and aggressive, and the other meek and sad. Do you feel all these things within yourself? At what different times, or in what situations?

Movie Details

• In theaters : March 14, 2014
• On DVD or streaming : June 24, 2014
• Cast : Jake Gyllenhaal , Sarah Gadon , Melanie Laurent
• Director : Denis Villeneuve
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : A24
• Genre : Thriller
• Run time : 90 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : some strong sexual content, graphic nudity and language
• Last updated : June 19, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Release Date : November 04,2021

123telugu.com Rating : 3/5

Starring: Vishal, Aarya, Mirunalini Ravi, Prakash Raj, Thambi Ramaiah , Karunakaran , Mamta Mohandas

Director: Anand Shanker

Producer: Vinod Kumar

Music Director: Thaman S.S.

Cinematography : R.D. Rajasekar

Editor: Raymond Derrik Crasta

Enemy is a film that has been promoted a lot in the last few days. Starring Arya and Vishal in lead roles, the film is out, and let’s see how it is.

Surya(Vishal) and Rajiv(Arya) are childhood friends. Rajiv is always jealous of Suriya’s sharpness and takes the route of crime at a very young age. Cut to 25 years later, they meet in Singapore. Once again, the war erupts between them in a bigger and crazier backdrop. Who turns whose enemy and what happens, in the end, is the basic story of the film.

Plus Points:

Vishal is fit as a fiddle and does well in his action-packed role. He looks solid and goes all out on Arya in the action sequences. Arya is also no less and brings an edge to the film with his negative role. In a way, Arya showcases a new angle in his acting.

Enemy is filled with full-on action. The thrills are new and create an interest for the audience most of the time. The first half is filled with crime-based scenes and the second half is reserved for solid action.

The action shots between Arya and Vishal have been executed so well and create solid thrill for the audience. Prakash Raj, Mamta Mohan Das do their supporting roles well. The BGM is one of the biggest highlights and Thaman delivers elevates things to the next level.

Minus Points:

The makers have concentrated more on the styling rather than the emotional part. The story had good scope to elevate the rift between the two heroes but that is not done that well. Also, as it is an out-and-out action film, a few logics go for a toss.

The second half has a few lags here and there. The makers should have edited out the repeated scenes to make things crisp. As the concentration is mostly on the action, the director Anand Shankar lets go of the key scenes which create a build-up to this big rift between the two heroes.

Technical Aspects:

Thaman’s music is dull but his BGM is on fire. The camera work is amazing and so was the splendid production design. The film looks slick and stylish. Special mention to the action choreography which is superb.

Coming to the director Anand Shankar, he has done a decent job with the film. He made solid use of stars like Arya and Vishal and narrated an action-packed film. If he would have handled the emotions a bit better, the output would have been even better.

On the whole, Enemy is an action drama with passable thrills and stunts. Vishal and Arya do well and hold the film together for the most part. All those who love action-packed films with big heroes can surely give this film a shot this Diwali.

Reviewed by 123telugu Team

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Enemy Review

02 Jan 2015

"Chaos is merely order waiting to be deciphered,” runs a title card at the start of Enemy. Based on José Saramago’s Nobel prize-winning novella The Double, you might never get to the bottom of Denis Villeneuve and Jake Gyllenhaal’s second collaboration following Prisoners (it actually shot first), but figuring it out is a riveting, thoughtful, thoroughly disturbing experience. This is brilliant, daring filmmaking that calls to mind the heyday of David Lynch and, post-Incendies and Prisoners, confirms Villeneuve as one of cinema’s most compelling new voices.

In outline, Enemy sounds like an extended Twilight Zone episode but the premise — lecturer Adam (Gyllenhaal) becomes obsessed with his dead spit, actor Anthony (also Gyllenhaal) — is played for more than spooky sci-fi weirdness. Instead it’s a slow inward interrogation into a split psyche, detailing mental turmoil, unconscious desires, predatory sexuality (Mélanie Laurent and Sarah Gadon play partners who get swapped) and the inability to feel intimacy with a dark, unflinching eye. It’s not all downbeat, though. The apartments are to die for.

If on paper the pair seem miles apart (Adam – Volvo and cords; Anthony — motorbikes and leathers), Gyllenhaal negotiates the differences in increments. These are two terrific performances, shifting between emotionally comatose and playful, that make you forget the special effects process but, more importantly, provide a grounding to anchor (but never explain) all the strangeness surrounding it. The Canadian milieu might call to mind early Cronenberg and you could lob any number of other touchstones at it (Kafka, Kubrick), but Enemy is its own thing. Villeneuve has incredible control of his palette, both visually (all cigarette-stain yellows and bruise browns) and aurally (LOUD scary music by Saunder Jurriaans and Danny Bensi), subtly building an undertow of fear and dread. On top, we get the more overtly bizarre — diversions into underground sex clubs, unsettling images of giant spiders. Some films are about characters dealing with uncomfortable headspaces. Enemy puts you inside one.

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Enemy movie review: Exploring the protagonist's internal struggle and its impact

"Enemy" uses a doppelgänger narrative and spider symbolism to explore the protagonist's internal struggle with dual identity , highlighting psychological entrapment and its destructive impact on relationships and self-perception.

• Cinematic exploration of character psychology : "Enemy" delves into character psychology and socio-sexual themes , utilizing a doppelgänger narrative to unravel the toll of a dual life. Denis Villeneuve's direction probes psychological complexities , akin to Kubrick's style, embracing ambiguity and interpretation .
• Dual identity and its psychological depth : The film portrays Jake Gyllenhaal as both Anthony and Adam , exploring their contrasting personas and the internal conflict arising from their existence. This duality symbolizes the protagonist's internal struggle, with the spider metaphor visually representing psychological entrapment and the influence on character dynamics.
• Spider symbolism and control : Spiders in "Enemy" symbolize lust and control , weaving a web of secrecy around Anthony's life. This metaphor deepens the theme of powerlessness and entrapment , associating closely with the women in Anthony's life and reflecting his internal struggle with sexual desire and loss of control .
• Impact of dual identity on relationships : The doppelgänger symbolism reflects the hidden self and impacts relationships, altering self-perception. Anthony's affair and its aftermath, symbolized by a half-empty apartment , highlight the destructive dynamics and dehumanization amid his identity crisis.
• Narrative intricacy and character evolution : Villeneuve's depth encourages exploration beyond the surface, offering a multidimensional experience . The narrative intricacy, including the dual personas' impact on surroundings and relationships, mirrors the protagonist's internal and external chaos, leading to a potential transition towards a new identity.
• Visual cues and thematic content : The film's muted color palette , chiaroscuro technique , and color symbolism (yellow signaling stress and anxiety) enhance the exploration of the protagonist's internal struggle. These visual elements, along with the tarantula metaphor for guilt, enrich the thematic depth and require keen observation for full thematic unraveling.
• Denis Villeneuve's ambiguity and psychological depth : The open ending and the discovery of the sex club key in the final scene continue the exploration of psychological dualism or multiple personality disorder . Villeneuve's direction challenges viewers to engage actively in analysis, enhancing the viewing experience by encouraging multiple theories discussion.

Enemy Movie Ending EXPLAINED!

Enemy 2013 lecture scene FHD (1080p) - Best Scenes

ENEMY ANALYSIS the FILM itself

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Enemy Film Analysis: The Horrors Within

• Jack Walters
• September 12, 2023

With his breakthrough horror feature Enemy , Denis Villeneuve explores the idea that there’s nothing quite as frightening as ourselves.

This analysis contains spoilers for ‘Enemy’ .

“Chaos is order yet undeciphered .”

Adam Bell is a downbeat college history professor living alone in Toronto. Anthony Claire is a successful actor living just around the corner with his pregnant wife. They couldn’t be further from each other – and yet, they’re the same person. Jake Gyllenhaal’s dual performance is filled with subtle details to distinguish the two, but these two man have much more in common than just their looks. When Adam first encounters his other half on a DVD recommended to him by a friend, he embarks on a desparate investigation to uncover the truth about Anthony and quickly becomes infatuated with his life.

The pair enter a whirlwind of paranoia and jealousy, bringing each other’s lives down from the inside until neither can go any further. Enemy is always pretty ambiguous on the subject of whether Adam and Anthony are literally the same person , but this reading of the story presents some extremely disturbing consequences that seem fitting with the rest of Denis Villeneuve ’s filmography. Adam and Anthony represent inverse sides of the same personality : while the former is reserved, alone, and enamored by the prospect of a more exciting life, the latter has that exact lifestyle that Adam desires and still finds himself jealous of his other half. Neither can be truly happy whilst presented with the ideal of what they could be , and this forces them to dig themselves deeper and deeper into that false identity.

Enemy isn’t a movie that can be understood in a simple, linear way: it’s incredibly stylized, and the scenes in which Adam and Anthony appear together basically exist outside of the film’s continuity. There’s no way they can actually be in the same room if they’re the same person, but these scenes are indicative of how one personality perceives the other. In that first interaction between the two, Adam is frightened by his doppelgänger’s confidence and success, while Anthony is fascinated and intrigued by the latter’s more relaxed lifestyle. It’s the first real indicator that they’re both unhappy in their own lives, and want to displace their other self.

Jealousy and envy are natural aspects of the human condition, and the fact that Adam/Anthony experiences these feelings towards his own self is actually a satirical decision from Villeneuve that proves how impossible it is for humans to be entirely selfless towards others . These two men are literally the same person, and they’re still jealous of each other.

The explosive conclusion of Enemy sees Villeneuve push these ideas to a whole new level. After fully integrating himself into Adam’s life, Anthony essentially steals his girlfriend and gets them both (seemingly) killed in a car crash. This leaves Adam with the perfect opportunity to adopt Anthony’s identity for good and steal the life he always wanted. It’s a terrifying display of how toxic and damaging this kind of self-absorbed jealousy can be , with the ‘death’ of one personality being the only way that Adam/Anthony can truly be at peace. 

Villeneuve’s exploration of self-hatred and inherent jealous is sharp and brutal, but there’s an even darker implication hidden within that dark ending. Anthony’s death is never actually shown on-screen, and knowing Villeneuve’s incredibly precise storytelling, that’s probably not a coincidence. Another reading of the film adheres to the theory that Adam and Anthony are the same person – but displaced through time. Many have suggested that it’s actually Adam in the crash (as much as separate versions of the same person can ever just be one identity), and he survives the accident to return home to his wife – which is when he becomes the character that audiences have come to know as Anthony. The entire story is one dark cycle, with Adam/Anthony constantly cheating on his wife and displacing his two identities to deal with the consequences.

Enemy is an inherently ambiguous story that never gives a concrete answer regarding Adam/Anthony’s identity. They could be different people, they could be the same person, they could even be the same person at different points in time – what’s important is that they’re representative of the cyclical nature of the human condition . Enemy ’s final shot is extremely telling of this – when Adam/Anthony returns home, he discovers a letter (which audiences know belongs to the club where Anthony cheats on his wife) and Helen transforms into a spider. Throughout the film, the spider is used as a recurring motif for lust and infidelity – so this final shot is proving that Adam/Anthony plans to have another affair (or his first, if you’re reading Enemy as a non-linear narrative). 

The character is destined to destroy his own life over and over again at the hands of his own self-hatred and inbuilt jealousy. Both sides of his personality are constantly at war with one another, battling for what they can’t have and pretending to have what they don’t. It’s actually a deeply sad story : the life of a man who’s so lost within himself that he’s forced to split his consciousness in order to comprehend his total inability to be happy. Everything is scattered and illogical, which is exactly how Villeneuve wants to paint humanity. Nothing we do makes sense , and everything is our own fault – even if we often want to blame somebody else for our selfish failures.

Enemy is now available to watch on digital and on demand. Read  our analysis of Denise Villeneuve’s  Prisoners .

• TAGS: Close analysis , Denis Villeneuve

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Movie Review: Enemy (2013)

• Aaron Leggo
• Movie Reviews
• 4 responses
• --> March 31, 2014

Professor Gyllenhaal.

Denis Villeneuve knows the truth: Spiders are evil. And now he’s made an entire movie about this. It’s hard to say whether Villeneuve is a genuine arachnophobe or just not a fan of the definitive creepy-crawly creatures, but his deliciously bleak head-trip thriller Enemy is absolutely littered with them. The arachnids are up to no good here, though to be fair, they’re not the only ones with a sinister agenda in this deliriously dark picture.

Enter Adam Bell (Jake Gyllenhaal, “ Prisoners “), a mild-mannered professor who shuffles through life in a sickly hued Toronto with an aimless malaise that follows him like a persistent personal cloud. He’s trapped in a dreary circle, unable to move forward. His apartment is depressingly empty, his mother (Isabella Rossellini, “Keyhole”) is worried about him, and his attractive girlfriend Mary (Mélanie Laurent, “ Now You See Me “) can’t even drag him away from marking papers with an invitation to the bedroom. Adam isn’t just stuck in a rut; he is a rut.

But everything changes when he watches a movie (the result of asking for a “cheerful” recommendation, an ironic request in a Villeneuve pic) and soon discovers that a small role is played by none other than his very own doppelganger. The presence of this actor is so subtle that Adam doesn’t even notice it at first, only making the connection later in a dream. And then he can’t get it out of his head. So begins Adam’s journey to hunt down his double, setting off a series of devastating events that tear at his psyche.

When Adam finds the actor, whose real name is Anthony, Enemy develops a fork in the narrative path and we witness the dual storylines unfold from that point on. Anthony has a beautiful blonde partner, too, named Helen (Sarah Gadon, “ A Dangerous Method “), but she’s his wife and she’s pregnant, so it’s not like his relationship situation is a mere mirror of Adam’s. Physically, though, the two are nearly indistinguishable, since Gyllenhaal wears the same bearded look for both roles, only providing some visual division in their differing wardrobes.

In terms of personality, Anthony exudes a brusque confidence that Adam probably wishes he had. Neither guy seems to have any clue as to what’s happening or why, but it’s clear that this is a chilling situation for everyone involved, including us. The score by Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans causes a blanket of dread to cover almost every scene, so the screws of tension are turned tight at all times. That’s a difficult note of terror to maintain without it becoming monotonous, but Villeneuve embraces the challenge and keeps digging deeper under our skin by keeping the imagery fresh and the conflict cerebral.

So where do the spiders come into all of this? Well, just about everywhere. It’s the why that leaves us scratching our heads, but that’s the beauty of Enemy , that its mysteries are multi-faceted, that they live and breathe in the dark corners of the narrative, open to all sorts of fascinating interpretations. One of the first shots shows a woman’s shoe about to crush a tarantula, so perhaps what follows is actually a spider revenge tale. Whether or not that’s the particular interpretation one wishes to explore, it’s clear that the creatures manifest themselves as monsters here, invading Adam’s mind and closing in on his sanity.

Adam’s dreams are haunted by the arachnids, revealing such striking images as a gigantic spider towering over skyscrapers while it slinks through the city and a naked woman with a spider head walking upside down through a hallway. These shots offer the motif at its most blatant, but they make such an immediate impression because they’re instantly iconic and they hurl us into Adam’s experience, creating a visualization of the movie’s terrifying tone.

Trying to understand.

A more subtle employment of the spider motif starts to creep into the picture as the story progresses and the situation worsens, as if the arachnids have sunk deeper not only into Adam’s consciousness, but the movie’s as well. At one point, the camera glides across the ceiling, looking down at Adam from a menacingly unusual angle. At another, the splintered glass of a car window suggests a spider web in its cracked formation.

The robust ubiquity of the whole narrative pattern makes for an absolutely hypnotic experience, but what is most impressive is how Villeneuve and screenwriter Javier Gullón, adapting a novel by José Saramago, leave it all up to us to determine how much is real and how much is imagined. The degree to which the imagery could be interpreted as metaphorical is up for debate, meaning there’s as much room for a fantastical theory as there is for something more grounded, such as the possibility that this is all part of an elaborate plan to cover up an extramarital affair.

By providing such depth and dimension for both Gyllenhaal-performed characters, Villeneuve ensures that Enemy is more than an unnerving head-scratcher, but additionally a taut, engaging examination of lives unraveled and reformed. There’s dramatic weight to the intertwined existences of Adam and Anthony, because the emotional dangers have been boiled down to an inescapably cramped and personal space that threatens to consume the characters and the entire movie with them. Mysteries abound, but one thing is for certain: You can’t trust the spiders. As Enemy so elegantly and eerily declares, they don’t trust us, either.

Tagged: actor , college , novel adaptation , teacher

You and I both know the truth. You just don't admit it.

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'Movie Review: Enemy (2013)' have 4 comments

March 31, 2014 @ 10:06 am Andrew

I have honestly no idea what watched. So many questions, so few answers.

Log in to Reply

March 31, 2014 @ 1:08 pm Me Frank

Gyllenhaal reminds me a lot of Matthew McConaughey in that they are both better actors than their earlier work let on. If Jake continues taking roles like the one in Prisoner and this his Oscar should soon follow.

April 1, 2014 @ 12:41 am Sunnie

Sounds interesting.

June 27, 2014 @ 9:16 am jjames36

Great review of what is certainly an interesting movie. The spiders are rather consistently present, aren’t they? :)

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Arya's deadly look in Enemy revealed | Vishal | Anand Shankar | Thaman. S

• Tamil cinema news

One film that has kept the excitement on a high level among fans is the upcoming Vishal and Arya starrer titled Enemy . Touted to be an intense action thriller, the upcoming film is a Mini Studios venture and is being directed by Anand Shankar of Arimba Nambi , Iru Mugan and NOTA fame and will see Vishal as the hero, with Arya cast in the role of a scheming villain. The on-screen collaboration of the two stars has raised the hype and expectations surrounding Enemy , with the makers on Thursday for the first time unveiling Arya's look. 

Mini Studios took to Twitter to release Arya's first look in Enemy , which has him depicted as a prisoner in the Changi Prison in Singapore. The Changi Prison has a big history as it was converted into a prisoner of war camp during World War II. The prison also contained the headquarters of the Japanese military police, known commonly as the Kempeitai, who were much feared at the time. Arya's look is the first glimpse of his character in Enemy and it will be interesting to see his backstory in the film and how he ended up in the high facility prison, including his face-off with Vishal, who too had a mass poster unveiled not long back to a rousing reception. 

ENEMY unchained. #ENEMY #ARYAFIRSTLOOK @VishalKOfficial @arya_offl @anandshank @vinod_offl @MusicThaman @prakashraaj @mirnaliniravi @RDRajasekar @stuntravivarma @RamalingamTha @gopiprasannaa @RIAZtheboss @baraju_SuperHit pic.twitter.com/4OdQ5PJtb0 — Mini Studio (@Mini_StudioOffl) February 4, 2021

An important leg of filming on Enemy was wrapped up sometime back at the Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad, with Arya later sustaining an injury while shooting an action sequence at the EVP Film City on the outskirts of Chennai. The scene in Enemy featured both Arya and Vishal, who had shot for the sequence without any body doubles. Arya, who is known to be a physical actor, has often shown his commitment to the fullest in his earlier roles, including transforming himself by hitting the gym for the role of a North Madras boxer in his upcoming film, Sarpatta Parambarai , under Pa. Ranjith's direction.

Enemy is Vishal's 30th and Arya's 32nd film, with the cast also featuring names like Dubsmash and Tik Tok fame Mirnalini Ravi, who made an impressive debut on the big screen in acclaimed director Thiagarajan Kumararaja's Super Deluxe . She has been paired opposite Vishal in Enemy , with five-time National Award-winning veteran actor Prakash Raj also cast in a pivotal role. Enemy is also Mini Studios' ninth venture and their fourth consecutive film in Tamil. S. Thaman is scoring the music in the film, with RD Rajasekar handling the cinematography, Raymond Derrick Crasta for the editing, T Ramalingam for the art direction and Ravi Verma as the action director. Shan Karuppusamy and S Ramakrishnan are writing the film's dialogues, while the lyrics are penned by young sensation Arivu.

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– Entertainment Analysis and Reviews

Exploring the Mind-Bending World of Enemy, Review & Explained

Enemy is a psychological thriller film directed by Denis Villeneuve, based on the novel “The Double” by José Saramago. The movie stars Jake Gyllenhaal in a dual role, along with Mélanie Laurent, Sarah Gadon, and Isabella Rossellini in supporting roles. The movie explores the themes of duality, identity, and the subconscious, and has gained critical acclaim for its intriguing plot, stunning visuals, and excellent performances.

The movie follows the story of Adam Bell, a university professor who discovers that he has a doppelganger living in the same city as him. As Adam becomes increasingly obsessed with his double, his life starts to spiral out of control, leading to a shocking and surreal climax.

Enemy has gained a cult following since its release in 2013 and has been the subject of many critical interpretations and analyses. In this article, we will delve deeper into the movie’s plot, themes, motifs, characters, cinematography, and sound design to understand what makes it such a compelling and intriguing piece of cinema.

Plot Summary

Enemy movie meaning,themes and motifs, symbolism in movie enemy, reception and impact, enemy movie explained, enemy movie ending.

In Enemy, we are introduced to Adam Bell, a history professor living in Toronto, Canada. He leads a monotonous and uneventful life until one day, a colleague recommends a movie to him. As Adam watches the film, he notices that one of the extras looks exactly like him. This realization leads him on a quest to find his doppelganger, which he eventually does.

The doppelganger, who goes by the name Anthony Clair, is a struggling actor who is also in a troubled relationship with his pregnant wife, Helen. As Adam and Anthony’s lives become increasingly intertwined, they start to mirror each other’s behavior and choices, leading to a surreal and shocking climax.

Here is a brief summary of the plot:

• Adam Bell is a history professor living in Toronto.
• A colleague recommends a movie to him, which leads him to discover his doppelganger.
• Adam tracks down his doppelganger, Anthony Clair, and they meet.
• Adam becomes increasingly obsessed with Anthony, and they start to mirror each other’s behavior.
• Anthony’s wife, Helen, discovers Adam’s existence and confronts him.
• Adam and Anthony switch places, with Adam pretending to be Anthony and vice versa.
• The climax of the movie involves a surreal and shocking revelation about the true nature of Adam and Anthony’s relationship.

Enemy explores several themes and motifs that are central to the movie’s plot and narrative. These include:

• Duality: The movie’s primary theme is duality, which is represented through the doppelganger motif. Adam and Anthony represent the two sides of the same person, with Adam embodying the intellectual and reserved side, and Anthony embodying the impulsive and emotional side. The duality theme is also explored through other elements in the movie, such as the repeated use of mirrors and reflections.
• Identity: The movie also explores the theme of identity, as both Adam and Anthony struggle with their sense of self. Adam is initially a passive and unremarkable character, who becomes increasingly obsessed with Anthony, a more confident and assertive version of himself. Anthony, on the other hand, is unhappy with his life and seeks validation through his relationship with Adam. The movie questions whether identity is fixed or malleable, and whether we can truly know ourselves.
• Subconscious: The subconscious is another important theme in the movie, as many of the events in the movie are surreal and dream-like. The movie blurs the line between reality and imagination, with many scenes being open to interpretation. This creates a sense of unease and uncertainty for the audience, who are never quite sure what is real and what is not.
• Control: The movie also explores the theme of control, as both Adam and Anthony struggle to control their lives and their relationships. The movie suggests that we are not always in control of our own destinies, and that external forces can shape our lives in unexpected ways.

Overall, the themes and motifs in Enemy are complex and interwoven, contributing to the movie’s sense of mystery and intrigue. The movie invites the audience to question their own sense of self and reality, and to consider the deeper meanings behind the events on screen.

Identification and analysis of symbols in the movie:

Enemy is full of symbolism and metaphor, which add layers of meaning and complexity to the movie. Here are some of the key symbols in the movie, and their analysis:

• Spiders: Spiders are a recurring motif throughout the movie, and represent the web of connections between Adam and Anthony. Spiders are also associated with the subconscious, as they represent the hidden and instinctual parts of the psyche.
• Mirrors: Mirrors are another important symbol in the movie, and represent the duality and self-reflection themes. Mirrors are often used to show Adam and Anthony together, but also represent the idea of the self as a reflection of the external world.
• Control: Control is a key theme in the movie, and is represented through several symbols, such as the spider and the key. The spider represents the idea of being trapped or controlled, while the key represents the possibility of unlocking new possibilities.

Discussion of their significance and meaning:

The symbols in Enemy add depth and complexity to the movie, and help to convey its themes and motifs. Here are some of the key ideas and meanings associated with the symbols:

• Connection: The spider symbol represents the idea that Adam and Anthony are connected, and that their lives are intertwined in unexpected ways.
• Reflection: The mirror symbol represents the idea that the self is a reflection of the external world, and that our identities are shaped by our environment and experiences.
• Control: The control symbols represent the idea that we are not always in control of our own destinies, and that external forces can shape our lives in unexpected ways.

• Review of the critical reception of the movie:

Enemy was generally well-received by critics, who praised its stylish visuals, haunting soundtrack, and powerful performances. However, some critics found the movie to be too abstract and confusing, and criticized its lack of narrative clarity. Overall, the movie has a 72% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and has been praised for its innovative storytelling and thematic depth.

• Discussion of the movie’s impact on the film industry:

Although Enemy did not have a major impact on the film industry, it did garner attention for its innovative storytelling and visual style. The movie has been cited as an example of how indie filmmakers can use innovative techniques to create engaging and thought-provoking films. The movie has also inspired a number of fan theories and interpretations, and has developed a cult following among cinephiles.

• Examination of the movie’s legacy:

Although Enemy was not a commercial success, it has developed a strong legacy in the years since its release. The movie has inspired a number of fan theories and interpretations, and has been the subject of numerous articles, podcasts, and video essays. The movie has also helped to solidify director Denis Villeneuve’s reputation as a visionary filmmaker, and has become a key part of his filmography. Overall, Enemy has left a lasting impression on the world of cinema, and continues to be studied and appreciated by film enthusiasts.

Enemy is a psychological thriller that explores the themes of duality, identity, and control. The movie follows the story of Adam Bell, a college professor who discovers that he has a doppelganger named Anthony Claire. As Adam delves deeper into Anthony’s life, he becomes increasingly obsessed with the man, and begins to lose touch with his own sense of identity.

The movie is full of symbolism and metaphor, which add layers of meaning and complexity to the story. For example, the spider motif represents the web of connections between Adam and Anthony, and the hidden and instinctual parts of the psyche. The mirror motif represents the duality and self-reflection themes, and the idea that the self is a reflection of the external world.

One interpretation of the movie is that it explores the idea of the divided self, and the struggle to reconcile our different identities and desires. Adam and Anthony represent two different aspects of the same person, and their interactions reflect the internal conflict that arises when we try to suppress or deny parts of ourselves.

Another interpretation of the movie is that it explores the theme of control, and the idea that external forces can shape our lives in unexpected ways. The spider symbol represents the idea of being trapped or controlled, while the key represents the possibility of unlocking new possibilities. This interpretation suggests that Adam’s obsession with Anthony represents his desire to break free from the constraints of his own life and experience something new and exciting.

The ending of Enemy is one of the most enigmatic and controversial aspects of the movie. In the final scene, Adam Bell and Anthony Claire confront each other in a high-rise apartment, and the film cuts to black just as they both lunge towards each other.

One interpretation of the ending is that it represents the final battle between the two aspects of Adam’s personality: his repressed and submissive self (Adam), and his assertive and dominant self (Anthony). The fact that the movie ends with the two men seemingly merging into one suggests that Adam has finally come to terms with his conflicting desires and identities, and has achieved a sense of integration and wholeness.

Another interpretation of the ending is that it represents Adam’s ultimate descent into madness and self-destruction. The fact that the final scene takes place in a high-rise apartment, and that the two men seem to be falling towards the ground, suggests that Adam has reached the end of his journey and is about to experience a catastrophic breakdown.

Regardless of which interpretation one subscribes to, the ending of Enemy is undeniably powerful and haunting. The film’s use of symbolism and metaphor creates a sense of unease and ambiguity that lingers long after the credits roll, and invites viewers to reflect on the nature of identity, control, and desire. Whether one loves or hates the movie’s enigmatic finale, there is no denying that it is a fitting conclusion to a film that is full of surprises and thought-provoking moments.

In conclusion, Enemy is a haunting and enigmatic film that offers a unique and thought-provoking exploration of the themes of identity, duality, and control. The movie’s use of symbolism and metaphor adds depth and complexity to the story, and invites multiple interpretations from viewers. Through its innovative storytelling, striking visuals, and powerful performances, Enemy has left a lasting impression on the world of cinema and has solidified director Denis Villeneuve’s reputation as a visionary filmmaker. Despite its abstract and sometimes confusing narrative, Enemy is a film that rewards careful attention and analysis, and continues to captivate audiences with its mysterious and unsettling atmosphere. For those looking for a challenging and intellectually stimulating movie experience, Enemy is a must-see.

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[Review] Enemy

When one reads a synopsis for the late Nobel Prize-winning author José Saramago ’s The Double you’ll find a very straightforward tale of doppelgangers. There’s the alpha, the pushover, and the innocent victims caught between; the insanity of seeing an exact replica in the flesh paired with the infinite possibilities such a discovery could mean. One is married; one has a girlfriend. The latter injects himself into the former’s world through curiosity, the first into the second’s purely for unfounded revenge and sexual desire. They exist together without looking deeper into what they are, pushing forward along a path of self-destruction you can see coming a mile away, and yet still find yourself captivated through the actions of those left from the wreckage. Denis Villeneuve ’s Enemy (adapted by Javier Gullón ) looks to amplify it further.

Everything written above remains intact with a stunning level of accuracy, but the filmmakers have added more intrigue, surrealistic existentialism, and intellectual subterfuge to keep your mind reeling hours or days afterward. Even as it ended I still found myself unsure which segment of the “double” trope was put onscreen. Was it a Fight Club -esque document of schizophrenia or a physical anomaly explained, unexplained, both, or neither? We have no idea who is who upon entering the film when one Jake Gyllenhaal listens to a voicemail from his mother ( Isabella Rossellini ) and the other attends a voyeuristic fantasia of naked women and tarantulas on platters. Which is the history teacher Adam Bell and which the struggling actor Anthony Claire? Or were they the same the whole time?

Both have a beautiful blonde in their arms every night, whether it is Adam’s girlfriend Mary ( Mélanie Laurent ) or Anthony’s wife Helen ( Sarah Gadon ). We wonder to ourselves if their mother is somehow the same person, ignorant to the fact both visit her from time to time in order to meld their occupations and personalities into one. Anthony hasn’t been to his talent agency in a while and we discover Adam caught in a loop at school teaching the same thing over and over again with the telling words of Marx declaring how there’s two of everything: one tragic, the second farce. Which man is the copy, though? Is it fame moving towards caricature as personal life evaporates into public recognition? Or is it mounting malaise and frustration while yearning to break free for more?

The way these stories usually go is to a place where one is shown to be scared and the other cognizant. It’s the path taken by TIFF 2013’s other doppelganger film entitled The Double . One tries to takeover the other’s life while the victim is left helpless to stop the transition. But here things are different. Neither man has a clue about what’s going on. Yes, one finds it invigorating while the other simply wants to runaway, but there is still trepidation and fear on behalf of each. Add in allusions to infidelity, the intriguingly unclear dynamic of Adam and Mary’s relationship, and Helen’s pregnancy and the sky is the limit on what may be behind everything. Dramatic faces and tearful insecurities increase while dreams juxtapose against reality in a subtle yet outlandish way.

We begin to recall the tarantula at the start and dissect it’s meaning. We think about molting anew; the Greek myth about Arachne—a woman accusing the Gods of obvious infidelity—turned into an eight-legged creature by Athena; and African and Native American folklore depicting them as tricksters. It’s a motif that to my mind is a wholly new addition to the story by screenwriter Gullón, a Kafka-esque nod to Gregor Samsa’s cockroach visage trapped as a self-conscious burden to those in his life. Why then do the nightmares manifest arachnid traits on women? Why does a woman at the start get depicted as its destroyer—a patient black widow waiting to pounce on her prey after gradually building trust? It’s a puzzle only fully deciphered through the personal prism of your imagination and the final frame.

More questions arrive like why Adam’s co-worker suggests he watch a film Anthony was in. Did his subconscious recognize his face, pushing it to the recesses of his mind since the man before him would never have the confidence to act? Adam becomes his own worst enemy as curiosity reigns before he can even fathom the consequences of his actions. Just because Anthony looks and sounds like him doesn’t mean they share the same psychological make-up. Yes, Adam may be the unhinged one on a search, but he appears harmless in comparison to Anthony’s cavalier pride. Can they co-exist? They have for this long in Toronto no less—but now that they know, can things ever be the same? And would anyone, including the innocent women caught in the middle, want to return to before?

You could spend hours debating, ripping apart every composition to find its essence. But don’t let it distract from the gripping thriller Villeneuve has crafted. Gyllenhaal embodies both men with care, building distinct characters that no amount of physical similarity can prevent discerning who is who. We see the tumult behind both sets of eyes, weighing their options and inching towards a reckoning as Villeneuve shrouds everything in a hazy pigment of dark fantasy and horror. The universe works in mysterious ways and the lives of those we assume are normal often prove anything but. Does that make the final image less disturbing, impossible, or mesmerizing? Our lives are a construct of perspective where things are hidden by, from, and for us. It’s all a trick, constantly played like some grand joke for which we’re the punch line.

Enemy opens in limited release on Friday, March 14th .

Den of Geek

Enemy Review

Jake Gyllenhaal plays two conflicted and conflicting men in Enemy, director Denis Villeneuve’s atmospheric and enigmatic new feature.

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Shortly before shooting his excellent major studio debut, Prisoners , director Denis Villeneuve made Enemy , a strange and inscrutable psychological thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal (who also worked with the director in Prisoners ) in a dual role as two men who look exactly alike and are drawn into a dangerous psychological battle with each other. The film’s refusal to deliver a conventional narrative may frustrate some viewers, but should also be embraced by moviegoers who like stories that take place just a step or two removed from reality.

Based on the novel The Double  by the late, brilliant Brazilian writer Jose Saramago, Enemy opens with a strange scene that sets the tone for the rest of this unsettling piece. Inside an underground sex club is where we first encounter a bearded Gyllenhaal watching a live exhibition along with several other men. A silver platter is brought out and its lid lifted to reveal a swollen, grotesque tarantula underneath – which is immediately crushed by a woman’s spiked heel.

We then switch to Gyllenhall as history professor Adam Bell, whose detachment and disinterest in his own life is matched only by his remote relationship with his girlfriend Mary (Melanie Laurent). Even sex is yet another mechanical function in Bell’s dreary, disconnected daily routine. But one day, while watching a movie on a recommendation from a colleague, Bell spies an actor in the background of one scene who disconcertingly looks like him. Doing some research, Bell eventually learns Anthony St. Clair’s phone number and calls him – only to be mistaken for Anthony himself by the actor’s pregnant girlfriend Helen (Sarah Gadon).

When the two men finally meet, it is clear that they don’t just resemble each other but are completely identical – right down to matching scars. This has a shattering effect on both their psyches and soon leads to a struggle in which both men wish to prevail – although the upper hand at first seems to go to the much more arrogant and cocksure Anthony (who, we assume, was also the man in the sex club) than the neurotic and at first timid Adam, who is plagued with increasingly horrific nightmares. As the conflict escalates, the women in their lives are inevitably drawn into it as well, with potentially tragic consequences.

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That description of the plot makes it seem a lot more straightforward than it actually is, because Enemy functions primarily as a mood piece, with the story drifting forward in a series of surreal, tense set pieces rather than a fast-moving chain of events. Villeneuve, as he did in Incendies and Prisoners , excels at sustaining the mood he wishes to convey; with its bleak, gray view of a tomb-like Toronto, the dark, stifling interiors of both men’s apartments, and the score by Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans doing a lot of heavy lifting, a miasma of dread settles over the film from the beginning and never lets up, almost to the point of self-parody.

But the movie never quite crosses that line, thanks especially to the committed performance(s) from Gyllenhall as Adam and Anthony. The two look the same but are different in subtle ways, leaving the viewer to wonder whether Anthony does actually exist or is some unattainable different version of himself that the disheveled, despondent Adam has dreamed up. The idea that we are looking at two versions of the same man gains strength when the inevitable happens and one of them seduces the other’s woman without her realizing the switch.

Gyllenhaal is excellent in the dual role, and gets solid supporting work from Laurent and Gadon, the latter a recent favorite of David Cronenberg. And she’s not the only Cronenberg connection in the film; Villeneuve’s thematic concerns, somnolent tone and eerie imagery call to mind a lot of the great Canadian director’s early work, along with the cold depiction of Toronto. And then there’s that ending: Villeneuve’s very last shot is horrifying, pretentious and just plain nuts all at the same time, jamming Cronenberg, David Lynch and Kafka into a startling unexpected final image that also brings the film full circle.

Is Enemy easily explained? Not a chance. Villeneuve and Gyllenhaal (and screenwriter Javier Gullon) are not interested in logical arguments or conclusive statements: if you think True Detective was a tough sit, then stay far away from this. But there’s no question that they’ve fashioned an unsettling philosophical/existential horror film that grapples with core questions about identity, fidelity and what it means to be a man – then casts you adrift to find the answers for yourself.

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3.5 out of 5

Don Kaye | @donkaye

Don Kaye is an entertainment journalist by trade and geek by natural design. Born in New York City, currently ensconced in Los Angeles, his earliest childhood memory is…

mindful, [metasociological], musings

Film review: Enemy (2013)

Enemy is one of the most stunning films I’ve seen this year. Its genius is composite and gestaltic; it lies in the mind-blowing script of Gullón, the paradisal and dystopic direction of Villeneuve, and the compelling yet disturbing acting by Gyllenhaal.

While the film has received near universal acclaim, the plot and its incomprehensibility to many viewers has presented an interpretative problem that has spawned numerous analyses online. While not intending to sound solipsistic, Enemy truly spoke to me in a way few other films did, and as such my understanding is somewhat different to the majority of these reviews. Because this is an analysis as well as a review, none of it will make sense to you if you haven’t seen the film, so I strongly recommend that you go rent it now. What follows is my own analysis of Enemy, starting with our character pairs.

• Adam/Mary – history professor and his girlfriend.
• Anthony/Helen – actor and his wife.

Villeneuve tells us that the film is about dictatorship, and this is true. Beginning at the very start of the film we hear a lecture about dictatorships – a subject which history professor Adam (Gyllenhaal) happens to specialize in.

What dictatorships or totalitarian systems do – and hereafter I want to use the latter – is to subjugate people. But not only do totalitarian systems oppress people – they also suppress awareness of this subjugation, which can happen in a number of ways. As the film begins, Adam tells his students that in Ancient Rome, the government sponsored bread and circuses for the people in order to reduce dissent. Bread and circuses are at their core a type of entertainment. Modern governments act similarly to limit dissent in different ways, we are told – yet the focus on ‘entertainment’ will be relevant later on.

From here onwards we’ll be jumping around a bit in our analysis, but I’ll break the news to you first: Adam and Anthony are one and the same. Bear with me for a little while longer. When Adam and Anthony meet in the hotel, Anthony explains the presence of a scar on his stomach, asking Adam if he has one too. Adam recoils in fear and horror, and flees the hotel. How might we understand this scene?

There is no scar on Adam’s stomach, because that scar appeared when Adam/Anthony (hereafter ‘AA’ to refer to both) was in a car crash – something which also resulted in Mary’s death. Mary was the girlfriend of AA, or at least his mistress, while he was already with Helen. The scene where AA gets his scar, and Mary is killed in a car crash, is marked by a spiderweb on the windshield of the car. Spiders live inside webs.

Consider spiders for a moment. The spiders in this film are not some loose analogy for dictatorships or other systems of the political kind. But they do represent a totalitarian system. They are avatars of memory, and the totalitarian control that traumatic memories of the past have over people’s minds. Consider your own memories – of trauma, of bullying, of the dissolution of a romantic relationship – and how inescapable they often feel. Having crossed this point, things are slowly beginning to come clear.

At the very start of the film – and remember that it isn’t in chronological order, so this is actually the ending scene – AA is in a club [entertainment] and a beautiful attractive waitress crushes a spider. AA is crushing the pain of his own memories, by seeking entertainment. This liberates him from the totalitarian control they exert over him. What memories, you ask?

The answer is given earlier on, when Adam has a dream of walking down a hallway, passing by a woman who is at once also a spider. He wakes up, and sees a woman whose hair matches the spider pattern. This is another factual memory – it is one of the other girls that Anthony cheated on his wife with. Anthony has a serious problem with commitment and infidelity, and is repeatedly unfaithful – not just to his partner.

What about the giant spider walking over the entire city? This is explained by the poster for the film, which shows that same spider in the city right over Anthony (who we are able to positively identify because of his jacket) but also inside his head. This is key. The spider (the gargantuan weight of his traumatic memories) is above him, but it is also inside him; its influences on his life are pervasive and absolute like some totalitarian dictator – but these memories, like the spider, are also an integral part of his very being. His experiences are in his head to stay.

At the very end in the movie, Adam has taken the place of Anthony. He goes into the bedroom to see Helen, and is greeted by a horrifyingly giant spider. Why? Because his memories are coming back to haunt him. So what exactly does this mean?

The entire film is a story of Anthony being confronted by his past. Adam is a representative of this past, and his role as a teacher of HISTORY attests to the fact. Adam represents a past version of Anthony that was unfaithful to Helen. Now Adam was meek and quiet, even to the point that he allowed himself to be cuckolded by Anthony. How can we say that he was a representation of Anthony’s unfaithfulness?

The answer is simple; Adam is an unmanly coward, and unfaithfulness is a form of cowardice, or a lack of living up to one’s responsibilities as a man. This is attested to when Anthony is in the car with Mary who he has just tried to fuck – just before they crash, he says to her ‘You think I’m not a man?’ She DOES think he’s not a man – because she has just discovered his unfaithfulness, which precipitates their dramatic exit from the hotel. In this way, Adam’s weakness/unmanliness facilitates Anthony’s unfaithfulness – Adam does not stop Anthony from fucking his own girlfriend, because he represents Anthony’s own past weakness (and thus, his weak masculinity).

That scene where Anthony is having sex with Mary, who then freaks out when she sees the wedding ring [marks?] on his finger? This was real. Mary did not realize that Anthony was married. The freakout did indeed happen. The crash did indeed happen. And Mary died, and Anthony was injured as a result – giving us the scar from earlier.

Why is Anthony an actor? Because he is acting out the horrors of the past in his head. The nightmares are all his. The gargantuan spider in the final scene looks poised to consume Adam, who by this point has assumed the role of Anthony before he enters the bedroom. It is memories of sinfulness, and the weight of his guilt, which seem ready to devour him.

Adam IS Anthony, so Adam allowing Anthony to fuck his girlfriend represents AA’s weak, sensitive, humanistic side failing to exert control over his brash, Dionysian side. This failure resulted in the death of Mary and nearly also the destruction of his marriage. This haunts him to this very day.

Simplified, it looks something like this:

• AA are/is one person
• The spiders are his memories and the weight of his guilt
• They constitute a totalitarian system which holds him down and oppresses him, and dictates to him his actions; they force him to continuously remember the past
• Adam, a history professor (the past) represents the past AA – he is weak and generally a shitty person. He allows himself to cheat on his own wife, because he is weak/unmanly/a coward.
• Adam’s weakness leads to the death of Mary, his girlfriend and mistress. It gives him a scar, which stays with him.
• AA suppresses this memory by entertainment, such as by attending clubs where the spider (his past) is crushed. But it keeps coming back to haunt him.
• The spider is a totalitarian system above him (in terms of his control) but inside him (as it is constituted by his memories).
• The film ends with AA having gone through all of the memories of this traumatic past. A gargantuan spider shows us how AA is confronted by his memories, and thus his own guilt and shame, when he goes into his wife’s bedroom.
• As viewers, we are not told whether AA’s suppression of his past, his memories, and his guilt is successful or not. We do not know whether he stays with Helen, or what her transformation into his guilty conscience might entail (perhaps accusing him of another affair).
• That is Enemy, and it is undoubtedly Villeneuve’s most impressive films to date.

5 out of 5 stars. ★★★★★

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Enemy Reviews

Enemy is brimming with non-commercial bravado that borders on being confessional. Just as Hitchcock made manifest his voyeuristic and controlling proclivities, Villeneuve exposes his own conflicted feelings towards women and monogamy.

Full Review | Aug 16, 2023

It will haunt the shit out of you

Full Review | Jan 14, 2022

It's a thought-provoking film that plays on the mind for days afterwards.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 27, 2021

A stylish and sinister (with a big tasty dollop of mystery on the side) that will keep audiences guessing long after they've left the theatre.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 1, 2021

Perhaps more important than the conundrum at the heart of the film is the skillfully crafted feeling of perplexity.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 4, 2020

Jake Gyllenhaal meets his doppelgänger - or maybe it's also him - and mostly they argue...

Full Review | Oct 10, 2020

It's a beautiful, nightmarishly warped universe ripe for multiple readings and psychological explanations concerning hidden desires and oppositions.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 29, 2019

Enemy is the type of film you just can't shake.

Full Review | Jul 20, 2019

Whilst the mysterious premise and sensory illusions make for a relatively mesmeric experience, Villeneuve struggles to repress the same heavy-handedness that's been present throughout his oeuvre.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 3, 2019

Enemy wants so much to be profound and provocative that it fails to ground itself in any way.

Full Review | Jan 16, 2019

This movie took a lot out of me last night.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 10, 2018

I'm a huge fan of Villeneuve and Gyllenhall, but this is just not a good movie.

I liked Enemy a lot. I see so many movies each year, many of which are near-clones of previous movies, that it's a treat to see a movie with an unconventional take on things, even if it's disturbing.

Full Review | Aug 26, 2018

If "Enemy" is the weakest of the three Villeneuve films I've seen, the problem is its reliance on gratuitous weirdness to do its heavy lifting.

Full Review | Feb 17, 2018

While the film is finely crafted and boasts excellent performances from female leads Laurent and Sarah Gadon, everything is too restrained and tasteful and, in particular, too reliant on the suspense trope of the chase.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 8, 2017

It's all style - and what wonderful, skillful style it is - with little substance.

Full Review | Aug 15, 2017

Featuring a tremendous performance by Jake Gyllenhaal and bold direction from Denis Villeneuve, Enemy is a masterfully crafted film with a tricky but very fulfilling premise.

Full Review | Dec 7, 2016

Gyllenhaal embodies both men with care, building distinct characters that no amount of physical similarity can prevent discerning who is who.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Mar 9, 2016

For those who enjoy a different kind of cinema, this is not to be missed.

Full Review | Feb 29, 2016

As with many Gyllenhaal flicks, a huge amount goes unsaid - such as what is going on.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 22, 2015

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Revisiting the Ending of Denis Villeneuve’s Enemy , Spiders and All

Ever watched the end of a movie and thought, “I have no idea what I just watched?” Vulture is here for you! We’ll be going back and taking a look at some notable endings in film, trying to explain what happened, why, and what it all really means. Previously in this series, we covered the ending of Donnie Darko .

When Enemy came out in 2014, Denis Villeneuve was in between phases. He’d just done Prisoners , the project that marked his transition from the critically revered Canadian films Polytechnique and Incendies into Hollywood proper, but he had yet to make Sicario and Arrival , the two movies that would solidify him as one of the best directors currently working.

In a certain sense, Enemy , a loose adaptation of José Saramago’s The Double , is an excellent harbinger of what Villeneuve had on deck. Like Sicario and Arrival , Enemy is a saturated film, every moment practically dripping with suggestion; in the case of Enemy , that suggestion is of menace, danger, and calamity inching ever closer, frame by frame. Villeneuve is a master of mise-en-scène, and in Enemy , just as much as the two later movies he’d be lauded for, there’s an incredible consistency and intensity to his vision. From the brutalist architecture of the University of Toronto Scarsborough campus to the crisscrossing wires of the streetcars to the sepia-heavy color schemes to the camera, which dollies beautifully through the entire film, every element in front of Villeneuve’s lens helps build a sense of dread and foreboding.

By this point, if you know anything about Enemy , you’re like, “Cool, we get it, Villeneuve’s good — but what about the spiders?” We’ll get there. But it’s important to establish the context for this incredibly bizarre movie, a movie that would be strange had it been made by the most Lynchian of independent filmmakers, but is even stranger coming from a guy who’s since been entrusted with the reins of a franchise .

Enemy is about a man, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. His name is Adam Bell, and he teaches history, and he looks really bummed out. Something isn’t sitting right with this guy. He moves through the world like it’s about to eat him, shoulders hunched and face hangdog, and even the fact that he has a beautiful sorta-girlfriend, Mary, played by Melanie Laurent, seems more like a burden than a source of joy. Maybe it’s what he’s teaching — dense theory, Hegel and Marx, the patterns of history and the relationship of dictators to control; maybe it’s the weird spider-party we see him at in the first scene, filled with a bunch of guys who look like they’re enjoying the entertainment way too much. What are they watching? Well, it appears to be a woman masturbating, and then another woman stepping on a tarantula with a high heel. You could see how that would take a toll on even the most cheerful of men, and something about Adam’s vibe gives the sense that he’s never been Mr. Sunshine.

But wait: Is it Adam at the spider party? Because soon after we meet him, a colleague suggests he watch a film called Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way . (Adam’s first response is, “I don’t really like movies.” Fun guy!) When Adam checks it out, he discovers that there’s an actor in it who looks exactly like him. And by exactly like him, I don’t mean they look exactly alike like your mom thinks you look exactly like Tom Cruise: I mean they both have the good fortune to be played by Jake Gyllenhaal. A little sleuthing by Adam reveals that this guy is an actor who goes by the alias Daniel Saint-Clare but is in fact named Anthony Clare, and he has a very pregnant wife, Helen, played by the superb Sarah Gadon.

The rest of the film unfolds as follows: Adam introduces himself to Anthony; Anthony tells him to fuck off, then decides that, actually, they should meet; Anthony blackmails Adam into letting him take Mary on a romantic getaway, where he has sex with her in a motel; Adam goes to Anthony’s apartment, where he pretends to be Anthony and has sex with his wife, only, in this case, it’s Helen who initiates it, knowing that he isn’t her husband; Mary then realizes that Anthony isn’t Adam, demands that they leave, and on the way home, they get in a car crash and die; and then Adam walks into Anthony’s bedroom to find that Helen has transformed into a giant spider. Fin .

So! This terrific, elliptical film, one of the best and most underrated of the last few years, leaves us with two fundamental mysteries: Who are Adam and Anthony? And what’s the deal with all the spiders?

Who are Adam and Anthony?

Let’s start with what we do know: Adam and Anthony are two different people, at least to some extent. At multiple points, the film just avoids confirming this for us. When Helen calls Anthony after encountering Adam at the his work, he picks up just as Adam disappears into a building. Adam and Anthony appear together twice, but only by themselves, with no witnesses. When Anthony talks to Helen on the phone, Adam isn’t home. (Adam talks to Anthony again when Helen is around, but that time, she doesn’t speak to him — and moreover, she accuses Anthony of lying about whom he was talking to.) Because of all this, there’s the slightest possibility that somehow, one man could be living a bifurcated life. We don’t really know how Anthony spends his days while Adam’s at school, and Adam’s relationship with Mary seems to be somehow irregular or inconsistent, dovetailing with the general sense that Anthony’s had an affair before.

But the major sign that the two men exist separately comes when Mary notices a mark on Anthony’s finger from his wedding ring, which he’d taken off before going to see her. That mark is significant: It’s what leads to the fight with Mary that culminates in their deaths, an event that also appears to be confirmed as real based on a report on the radio the next morning. (Although apart from the ring thing, you could make a strong argument that Adam could’ve projected his own vision onto that event, turning it into the death of Anthony, a creation of his psyche.) If Anthony’s finger bears that mark, and she’s just noticing it for the first time, that means Anthony and Adam are different people. However, it’s hard to tell just when they became separate people. Both share the same scar on their chest; short of the two of them having been identically maimed early in their lives, that scar indicates some kind of shared life.

Here’s where things get weird. Adam’s name is noteworthy; you might remember that, in the Book of Genesis, Adam, the first man, was created in the likeness of God. God then took a rib from Adam and using it made Eve. Adam and Anthony’s scars are on their rib cage.

Following this train of thought, we might hypothesize that at some point, Anthony was made from Adam, fully formed but subtly different, and the two then went about separate lives: one meek and self-conscious, the other cocky and volatile. While this is, obviously, not a scientific or verifiable explanation, art doesn’t have to be scientific or verifiable, thank God. This interpretation gains some added credibility from the sense that they seem to share a mother. When Adam goes to see his mother, she believes he likes blueberries, which he denies; meanwhile, Anthony gives Helen an entire lecture on blueberries, particularly organic ones, and the importance of having them around for his smoothies. (That also gives a pretty good sense of what Anthony’s like as a dude.) His mother references his “nice apartment,” a term that could not in good conscience be applied to the place where Adam lives — Anthony confirms as much when he visits, calling it, if I remember correctly, “a shithole” — but would accurately describe Anthony’s place. She also mentions that he can’t commit to one woman, even though both Adam and Anthony appear to be in relationships, and references his acting career, which she wouldn’t know about unless she was just really into local Canadian cinema — or he, Anthony, told her.

In conclusion: Adam and Anthony are different, but seem to have sprung from the same being. Based on the names and the movie’s point of view, Adam would be the best guess for who came first, but hey: Only Isabella Rossellini knows for sure.

What’s the deal with all the spiders?

Oh, man. This nut’s a little harder to crack, but let’s give it a try. Spiders, namely tarantulas, appear in a few different scenes. In the opening, either Adam or Anthony (more on that in a sec) visits the aforementioned sex dungeon/zoological society, where a woman in a high heel is poised to crush a tarantula while Adam/Anthony looks on through his fingers. Two more dreamlike images follow. In one, a naked woman walks down a hallway past Adam/Anthony, her head replaced by an arachnoid head; and in the other, enormous spiders straddle Toronto, looking like a Canadian War of the Worlds . Both of these could be explained away as dreams, but then in the final shot, Adam walks into the room Helen just entered to find an enormous tarantula huddled in the corner.

The spiders, then, feel less like a literal function of the plot and more like an overarching metaphor. In an interview with Gyllenhaal and Villeneuve that plays after the credits on Amazon Prime, the director said this about the spiders:

“To be honest with you, it’s not in the book, it’s not in the novel, and I’m not sure if Saramago would’ve been happy with the idea of having something that is so surrealistic in his naturalistic environment that he created in the novel. It’s an image that I found that was a pretty hypnotic and profound [way] to express something about femininity that I was looking to express in one image. Because in the book you can use chapters to express something, but in cinema you have one shot, and the spider was exactly the perfect image. There’s movies that I saw in my life that propose images that were not explained, but were provocative, that were opening doors from a subconscious point of view — images that are frightening and oppressive, but at the same time, you feel the image. It prints itself in your brain, but you feel uncomfortable with it. But there’s a strong meaning in it, and I think that if you think just a little bit you will find it quite quickly.”

If you found it quickly, then good for you: You are Jake Gyllenhaal. If not, don’t feel too bad. My instinct is to approach it surrealistically, as Villeneuve suggests. In Enemy , the spiders mostly appear in dreams, or in dreamlike scenarios, suggesting a Jungian approach to their interpretation. On the one hand, spiders are frightening and dangerous; on the other, they have a direct connection to femininity. In the Arachne myth, which Ovid recounts in Metamorphoses , Arachne beats Athena in a weaving contest, but doesn’t acknowledge that she was able to win thanks to the gift of weaving that Athena gave her in the first place. (One of the many lessons of Greek mythology: Be grateful to the gods, or they will mess you up.) Athena strikes Arachne with intense guilt, which causes her to hang herself. When Athena sees her dead body, she feels a little bad about causing the girl’s suicide just because she lost a weaving contest, so she turns Arachne into a spider, allowing her to weave for all eternity — just not as a human.

Helen’s transformation into a spider, then, has precedent. But Enemy doesn’t contain any weaving contests, unless the DVD’s got some deleted scenes. Instead, the spider connection seems to stem from a different system of thought: the Freudian Madonna-whore complex, in which men see women as either saintly mothers or worthless sex objects. The spiders are implicated early on in the film in some sort of sexual rite, and when Helen, a pregnant woman, turns into the spider after having sex with Adam — shortly after Anthony cheats on his pregnant wife with Mary — it could be seen as a literalization of Adam’s disturbed psyche, which can’t handle intimate relationships. Enemy appears to say that even though Adam has done away with Anthony — and Mary, an innocent bystander who represents some sort of purely sexual relationship, in the process — he still has a ways to go before he can reconcile these two facets of womanhood. And note the names: Mary, the mother of Christ; and Helen, the catalyst for the Trojan War. There’s also a motif around high heels, an obvious feminine symbol: Adam and Anthony each notice Helen and Mary’s heels at separate points in the film, and the platform heels used to crush the spider at the beginning are, uh, hard to miss.

A film that handles ambiguity and symbolism so deftly, while still providing the more concrete thrills of watching a great actor and great director do adventurous, striking work, is a rare and special thing, and that’s why Enemy ’s so brilliant: It can support these readings while still not giving itself away. Although arachnophobes might want to sit this one out.

• vulture homepage lede
• denis villeneuve
• jake gyllenhaal

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