You Only Live Twice...
A film starring Jake Gyllenhaal always seems to attract me, and it always will do, due to the knowledge that Gyllenhaal portrayed one of my favourite characters in one of my all-time favourite films. That film was Donnie Darko, a film so unlike anything I had seen before in my lifetime when it was released, a film that had endless meaning, a film which featured an awesome soundtrack, capped off with a perfect performance by Gyllenhaal as the titular character. Now we have Enemy, the second film from the Gyllenhaal/Villeneuve partnership, filmed instantly after the completion of their first effort, Prisoners, in 2013, and boy, is it a weird one.
In terms of the plot, Gyllenhaal plays history teacher, Adam Bell, a man whose life seems to be going nowhere and is stuck on repeat, whilst his relationship with Melanie Laurent's character, Mary, follows suit, and is seemingly only held together by the physical aspect it brings with it. During one evening, Bell watches a film recommended to him by another teacher, named, Where There's a Will There's a Way, and sees someone physically identical to him starring in the film. That's where I will end the plot synopsis, as what follows is a film laced with mystery, suspense and downright creepiness, in a vein which reminded me of works by David Lynch, particularly Mulholland Dr., bubble-wrapped with notions of identity, totalitarianism and arachnophobia, particularly for me.
Features of the film include top-notch performances, particularly from Gyllenhaal, who practically has to play two completely different roles, a heavy sense of surrealism, accompanied by an almost grunge-esque feel to the film, and an ending which freaked me out so much, I had to lie down and digest slowly what had occurred before my eyes. On the bad side, the film obviously won't appeal to a mass audience, with its' ambiguous tone throughout leaving a range of questions unanswered, whilst the dark colours of the film sometimes required me to peer nose-first into my screen in order to figure out what was happening and bring clarity to the situation.
Overall, Enemy is dark, bizarre, and features an ending that will shock almost everyone. Honestly, i'm still shaking. I believe it is a better film than Prisoners and will take some beating to not be in my Films of the Year List for 2015. Please feel free to comment on your feelings, ideas, and meaning of the film and I hope you enjoy it as much as i did and remember, "chaos is order yet undeciphered."
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