Enemy ***½ (2013, Jake Gyllenhaal, Mélanie Laurent, Sarah Gadon) – Movie Review

Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Adam Bell, a rather sombre Toronto area history college professor stuck in a routine with his comfortably dull and repetitive job and quite boring live-in girlfriend called Mary (Mélanie Laurent).

But, one night, while watching a home rental movie, Adam spots his exact look-alike, an actor in a bit part, and becomes obsessed with setting out to locate and meet him, and find out all about him. He learns the man’s stage name is Daniel Saint Claire, a Toronto-based actor with only a few on-screen credits, and he’s married to the heavily pregnant Helen (Sarah Gadon). 

They’ve both got beards, they’ve both got a major body scar. Personality-wise and dress-wise, they’re a bit different, that’s all. The two meet, but Adam regrets it and runs. The more confident Anthony ends up becoming obsessed with the more reticent Adam.

We get to see the two Jakes as both Adam and Anthony in Denis Villeneuve’s quietly pleasurable and admirable 2013 mystery movie, informed with a lot of emotional tension and a strong visual sense. The movie belongs entirely to Gyllenhaal, who mesmerises the attention.

The atmospherically eerie camerawork is a major asset, but the main pleasure is watching the star’s two differentiated, seamlessly interlocking performances. Isabella Rossellini has one scene as Adam’s mother, and it’s a shame she doesn’t have more to do.

It’s written by Javier Gullón, based on a novel by José Saramago. What it’s all about is entirely up to you.

Québec-born Denis Villeneuve also directed Gyllenhaal in Prisoners in 2013.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Movie Review

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Villeneuve and Rossellini.