A man seeks out his exact look-alike after spotting him in a movie.
Part existential drama, part psychosexual thriller, Enemy is unnervingly bleak, restlessly pushing audience buttons with lurid sex clubs and giant spiders.
Gyllenhaal is engaged and engaging in Denis Villeneuve’s adventure in psychological surrealism: let’s hope they stay friends.
The doppelgänger trope may sound well worn but Enemy finds fresh, deeply unnerving ground. And Jake Gyllenhaal gives two spellbinding performances.
Audiences are unlikely to enjoy the movie, but there’s no denying its power to make them feel authentically unhappy.
Lots of good stuff here, precious little of which has any lasting impact.
Enemy may play on a device much-loved and oft-deployed by film-makers and authors alike (the film is based on Nobel Prize-winner José Saramago’s novel The Double), but it’s a device that is always worth revisiting, especially when it’s used to generate the kind of subtle menace elicited here.
This could be Villeneuve’s most accomplished film so far.
Enemy is a strange film, a psychological thriller that’s heavy on psychology and light on thrills.
Enemy has morbid elegance to spare, which should guarantee it some long-term cult prestige.
Denis Villeneuve: 'If you don't deal with your shit then your shit will stay alive
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