When things are not what they seem to be
GYLLENHAAL. His latest starrer requires him to play two very different personalities—who look exactly alike!
Jake Gyllenhaal’s latest starrer, “Enemy,” gives him the plum opportunity to “stretch” his abilities as an actor, as it requires him to play two very different personalities—who happen to look exactly alike!
The first persona we’re introduced to is a history professor who appears to live a very troubled existence: He frequents sex clubs that offer kinky shows for its very jaded patrons, and his girlfriend occasionally finds his lovemaking too painful and violent to be tolerated, even if she loves him.
In addition, he’s an insightful but far from inspiring teacher who sometimes perplexes his students by repeating entire sections of a lesson he’s just imparted.
Things come to a head when the professor learns by chance about the existence of an actor who looks exactly like him!
Not just fascinated but also deeply troubled, he hunts down his doppelganger—and later comes up with the devious scheme of “exchanging lives” with his “twin!”
This is an unexpected move on his part, because it would be more logical if the actor were the one to want to do it, since it’s his profession to vicariously live other people’s lives.
Dark existence
But, we get the feeling that the professor is so disgusted with his dark and dismal existence that he wants out of it—and his “twin” offers him the chance to make a complete “getaway.”
In addition, his decision acquires a sexual connotation, because there are two women involved, and it’s tempting to see if he can make such a complete change of identity that the women, who know their respective partners intimately, won’t be able to tell the difference!
As it turns out, after the two lookalikes “exchange lives,” the professor’s girlfriend does know that something is very wrong, and the cynical and exploitative “experiment” ends tragically.
This cautionary ending warns us to be satisfied with our own existence, problematic and flawed though it may be, because the desire to invent a “better” life for ourselves could be like opening—a can of spiders!
That’s one view of “Enemy,” but it definitely isn’t the only possibility. On a less logical and literal level, the film could be seen to be telling a more psychological and symbolic story, since it has all sorts of “arachnid-humanoid” creatures getting in on the action, sometimes even walking or floating upside-down!
Clearly, in this movie’s protagonist’s warped universe, things are not what they seem to be!
So, this alternative view presents itself: There’s really only one principal character in the story, the other is a warped creation of his disturbed imagination, a desperate way out of his miserable existence.
Thus, as the film’s shocking ending shows, there really is no escape from those huge, predatory monsters that deeply disturbed people create—which ultimately lead to their own destruction!
