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I watched Enemy last night, and despite watching an explanation video on the film, there are still perplexing aspects. There are many ways you can look at this film, and that is partly why I have left this open for discussion after the review. I'd like to hear opinions from others on what they thought the film meant and some of it's symbolism.
First of all, let me say that Enemy creates a fantastically dark, brooding mood within the film that fits perfectly. You can feel the uncomfortableness and loneliness at times. The lighting really helps set the two Jake Gyllenhall characters apart, but I'll get into that later. The camerawork is great. Not too flashy, but not too boring either. The camera moves with smooth elegance and grace. The color of the movie, a dirty yellowish color really helps give the feeling of a sad, and lonely world. The city, while being huge and full of life, seems empty except for the main characters in our story. It's extremely eerie seeing the cloudy city from afar, seeming cold and heartless. The shots of the skyscrapers from down below give us the impression that we're ants in a gigantic world. And the large overhead shots of the city give us a feeling of how big this place is. The city feels like a character itself, like some giant watching over our characters. Ok, I've gone over camerawork and setting enough, lets talk about story.
Jake Gyllenhall plays Adam Bell, a history teacher at a college. He is in a not-so-healthy relationship with his girlfriend Mary (Melanie Laurent). Adam lives in an apartment with just about nothing in it. You can see that he is unhappy. One day, a friend tells him to rent a movie, so he does. He watches the movie and sees someone in the background who looks exactly like him. Stunned by this, he does some research and finds that the actor's name is Anthony St. Claire. This leads me to my next point.
Jake Gyllenhall also plays Anthony St. Claire, an actor who played tiny roles in 3 films. He has a pregnant wife and a nice apartment with lot's of expensive things. He's more energetic and upbeat than Adam Bell, and their personalities completely differ. Anyway, one day, Anthony receives a phone call from someone saying he looks exactly like him. Anthony ignores this for a while, but his wife is suspicious. So, she finds out where Adam Bell works and goes to see what's happening and is stunned when she sees someone who looks exactly like her husband, but acts completely different. Eventually, Anthony decides to meet up with Adam, and it's at this point that stranger things begin to happen, but I won't spoil it.
What does all this mean? I'll let you watch the film and interpret it your way.
Let's really talk about acting now. Jake Gyllenhall is fantastic. I watched special features about this film, and Gyllenhall acted with himself and even improvised lines with himself at times. He would say his lines as one character, and even throw in a few extra lines sometimes, and then go to the other character and improvise lines against what he said before. It's really amazing that this actor has so much range. And from what I've heard, Gyllenhall and director Denis Villeneuve have a really good and creative relationship, which is good to hear, because this film turned out really well. When you see footage of them on set, you can see all the ideas being laid out before each other and it's a really good thing to see such a great actor-director relationship going on between the two. I certainly hope they work together again. I cannot stress enough that Jake Gyllenhall is fantastic in this film. Phenomenal performance(s).
Melanie Laurant plays Mary and she does very well. She show how uncomfortable and dissappointed she is in her relationship and it works really well. She had a good performance and I sort of wish that there would have been more development for her character, instead of sort of just another character.
Sarah Gadon plays Helen, the pregnant wife. She gives an outstanding performance. I think she could certainly become one of our best actresses today. She shows so much emotion in her face alone in this film, it's amazing. You can see her longing and sadness and how much she worries about her husband. You can see that she's not just another dumb, stereotypical housewife. In her eyes you can see that she knows something. Something that's beyond the audience. It's really fantastic seeing her deliver her lines so well, but with such a gentle sadness and fear. She's already a good actress, I can see that, but if she lands some bigger roles, she'll definately become a star.
Let's talk about lighting. They were very specific about lighting in this film. They wanted Anthony's apartment to be brighter, and much more full of objects, making it a more comfortable environment. While Adam's apartment is near empty, leaving lot's of empty space, signifying loneliness. His apartment, is also much darker than Anthony's with very little light flowing through it. It really helps with the mood. I loved the camera work in this film and thought that it really helped tell the story well. The visual style is very different from Prisoners, which had a different DP (Roger Deakins, a genius). The DP for Enemy was Nicolas Bolduc. Seeing how differently these films look and that they have different DP's gives me the impression that Denis Villeneuve let's his DP's have more freedom and choice with camerawork and lighting. It certainly makes me respect Villeneuve more.
Overall, Enemy is a spectacularly involving thriller that keeps you thinking all throughout the film, and long after it's over. I really enjoyed it and will probably be watching it again soon. I highly reccomend this film. While it is hard to understand, there are many ways of interpreting it and that's one thing I like about it. It gives the audience many different options on what to think. I watched a video explaining the film and it really helped me like the film more. But, you don't have to do that. You can come up with your own ways of seeing it, and despite the youtube video, I think I have my own ideas as well. Anyway, I give Enemy
4.8/5
At this time, feel free to discuss the film and what you thought about it. I will also join in discussion if I get enough people to talk on this thread.
**WARNING** if you have NOT seen Enemy and plan on watching it, do not scroll down past this point, because there will be spoilers.
I watched Enemy last night, and despite watching an explanation video on the film, there are still perplexing aspects. There are many ways you can look at this film, and that is partly why I have left this open for discussion after the review. I'd like to hear opinions from others on what they thought the film meant and some of it's symbolism.
First of all, let me say that Enemy creates a fantastically dark, brooding mood within the film that fits perfectly. You can feel the uncomfortableness and loneliness at times. The lighting really helps set the two Jake Gyllenhall characters apart, but I'll get into that later. The camerawork is great. Not too flashy, but not too boring either. The camera moves with smooth elegance and grace. The color of the movie, a dirty yellowish color really helps give the feeling of a sad, and lonely world. The city, while being huge and full of life, seems empty except for the main characters in our story. It's extremely eerie seeing the cloudy city from afar, seeming cold and heartless. The shots of the skyscrapers from down below give us the impression that we're ants in a gigantic world. And the large overhead shots of the city give us a feeling of how big this place is. The city feels like a character itself, like some giant watching over our characters. Ok, I've gone over camerawork and setting enough, lets talk about story.
Jake Gyllenhall plays Adam Bell, a history teacher at a college. He is in a not-so-healthy relationship with his girlfriend Mary (Melanie Laurent). Adam lives in an apartment with just about nothing in it. You can see that he is unhappy. One day, a friend tells him to rent a movie, so he does. He watches the movie and sees someone in the background who looks exactly like him. Stunned by this, he does some research and finds that the actor's name is Anthony St. Claire. This leads me to my next point.
Jake Gyllenhall also plays Anthony St. Claire, an actor who played tiny roles in 3 films. He has a pregnant wife and a nice apartment with lot's of expensive things. He's more energetic and upbeat than Adam Bell, and their personalities completely differ. Anyway, one day, Anthony receives a phone call from someone saying he looks exactly like him. Anthony ignores this for a while, but his wife is suspicious. So, she finds out where Adam Bell works and goes to see what's happening and is stunned when she sees someone who looks exactly like her husband, but acts completely different. Eventually, Anthony decides to meet up with Adam, and it's at this point that stranger things begin to happen, but I won't spoil it.
What does all this mean? I'll let you watch the film and interpret it your way.
Let's really talk about acting now. Jake Gyllenhall is fantastic. I watched special features about this film, and Gyllenhall acted with himself and even improvised lines with himself at times. He would say his lines as one character, and even throw in a few extra lines sometimes, and then go to the other character and improvise lines against what he said before. It's really amazing that this actor has so much range. And from what I've heard, Gyllenhall and director Denis Villeneuve have a really good and creative relationship, which is good to hear, because this film turned out really well. When you see footage of them on set, you can see all the ideas being laid out before each other and it's a really good thing to see such a great actor-director relationship going on between the two. I certainly hope they work together again. I cannot stress enough that Jake Gyllenhall is fantastic in this film. Phenomenal performance(s).
Melanie Laurant plays Mary and she does very well. She show how uncomfortable and dissappointed she is in her relationship and it works really well. She had a good performance and I sort of wish that there would have been more development for her character, instead of sort of just another character.
Sarah Gadon plays Helen, the pregnant wife. She gives an outstanding performance. I think she could certainly become one of our best actresses today. She shows so much emotion in her face alone in this film, it's amazing. You can see her longing and sadness and how much she worries about her husband. You can see that she's not just another dumb, stereotypical housewife. In her eyes you can see that she knows something. Something that's beyond the audience. It's really fantastic seeing her deliver her lines so well, but with such a gentle sadness and fear. She's already a good actress, I can see that, but if she lands some bigger roles, she'll definately become a star.
Let's talk about lighting. They were very specific about lighting in this film. They wanted Anthony's apartment to be brighter, and much more full of objects, making it a more comfortable environment. While Adam's apartment is near empty, leaving lot's of empty space, signifying loneliness. His apartment, is also much darker than Anthony's with very little light flowing through it. It really helps with the mood. I loved the camera work in this film and thought that it really helped tell the story well. The visual style is very different from Prisoners, which had a different DP (Roger Deakins, a genius). The DP for Enemy was Nicolas Bolduc. Seeing how differently these films look and that they have different DP's gives me the impression that Denis Villeneuve let's his DP's have more freedom and choice with camerawork and lighting. It certainly makes me respect Villeneuve more.
Overall, Enemy is a spectacularly involving thriller that keeps you thinking all throughout the film, and long after it's over. I really enjoyed it and will probably be watching it again soon. I highly reccomend this film. While it is hard to understand, there are many ways of interpreting it and that's one thing I like about it. It gives the audience many different options on what to think. I watched a video explaining the film and it really helped me like the film more. But, you don't have to do that. You can come up with your own ways of seeing it, and despite the youtube video, I think I have my own ideas as well. Anyway, I give Enemy
4.8/5
At this time, feel free to discuss the film and what you thought about it. I will also join in discussion if I get enough people to talk on this thread.
**WARNING** if you have NOT seen Enemy and plan on watching it, do not scroll down past this point, because there will be spoilers.