ENEMY

ENEMY is a bizarre tale of a man who finds an actor who looks exactly like him, but the actor turns out to be both the man’s worst nightmare and his salvation. ENEMY has a bizarre ending and last shot that leaves viewers hanging. The acting is good, but the execution of the story leaves something to be desired.

The movie opens with some men voyeuristically watching women perform some bizarre and intimate acts in a dark room. In one tableau, a woman is abusing herself sexually. In another one, a covered dinner plate reveals a large tarantula spider. As the spider steps off the plate onto the platform, a woman in high heels looks as if she’s going to squash the spider with her heel.

Cut to a history professor named Adam Bell, who’s in a relationship with a blonde woman named Mary. On night while watching a movie recommended by a colleague, Adam spots a minor actor who looks just like him.

Obsessed with his desire to meet his double, Adam tracks down Anthony Clair, an actor with a pregnant blonde wife, Helen. Eventually, Adam convinces Anthony to meet, but Adam begins to feel uncomfortable and abruptly leaves. At this point, Anthony, who’s been having marital problems, starts to go unhinged. He decides to pose as Adam and convince Mary to come away with him for a weekend. In the hotel room, Mary suddenly notices the impression of the wedding band on Anthony’s finger. Things go from bad to worse, leading to a bizarre, anticlimactic ending.

Set in Toronto, Canada, ENEMY is based on a novel by Nobel Laureate Jose Saramago, titled THE DOUBLE. Apparently, the movie’s story follows the novel’s, but the director has added some bizarre images of tarantula spiders in the movie. In one shot, for example, a giant tarantula spider is shown walking nonchalantly around Toronto. Also, an image of a tarantula spider suddenly appears in the movie’s last anticlimactic shot. These brief images don’t add much at all to the movie or its story. Also, the movie’s tone seems not as lively as an excerpt of the novel MOVIEGUIDE® read.

Eventually, in the movie, Anthony tries to replace Adam by seducing Adam’s girlfriend. This doesn’t end well for Anthony or Adam’s girlfriend. However, after Anthony’s failed seduction attempt, Adam invades Anthony’s life and starts to become Anthony. Unlike Adam’s girlfriend, however, Anthony’s wife seems pleased by the new Anthony, even though she realizes it’s really Adam.

ENEMY probably will enthrall only a few moviegoers, if any. Most moviegoers will find it too slow, too monotone, and unnecessarily bizarre. The actors and actresses (including Jake Gyllenhaal as Adam/Anthony) do a good job, but the material they have to work with is slight, somewhat pretentious, and occasionally creepy. The point of the whole exercise gets lost in the telling.

Sadly, ENEMY also contains some graphic lewd content. So, MOVIEGUIDE® found ENEMY to be ultimately unacceptable and not really worth the effort to see.