Enemy

SPOILERS!

You could debate whether 2013's ENEMY involves two men who have identical appearances and voices or just one man who may be in a vortex of psychosis.  Or schizophrenia.  For me, there is much evidence in director Denis Villeneuve's film for the latter view.  Careful attention to lines of dialogue is the key, particularly in the later scenes.  Also for me, this theory makes the whole story that much more interesting.

Adam is a reclusive history professor at a university in Toronto.  One night he sees his twin in a movie he's rented.  Some Google research later, Adam discovers Daniel St. Claire, an actor who amazingly lives nearby.  Adam becomes obsessed with meeting Daniel.  Once they do, Adam becomes spooked and decides he's not longer obsessed.  Daniel, as different in personality as one could be from Adam, conversely becomes fascinated, and even begins stalking the former's girlfriend, Mary (Melanie Laurent).  Daniel also has a pregnant wife at home, Helen (Sarah Gadon).  The women will eventually meet their man's twin.  And become sufficiently unnerved.   Imagine the possibilities.

ENEMY, written by Javier Gullon and based on the novel The Double by Jose Saramago, is an intriguing and often impressive psychological drama/thriller that is essentially a journey through a man's insecurity. His subconscious.  One man, you dig? A man who is truly spooked by the concept of becoming a father, and maybe even being an adult.  A disenchantment with a dull job that results in a failed attempt at stardom.  An affair with another attractive woman to escape reality.  Spiders figure largely in this story, in a figurative sense.  One is crushed by a dancer at a mysterious "men's" club.  Another traipses around the skyline.  Another is as large as a room.

I think the spiders all represent Helen.  She is his nemesis, his enemy.  He loves her, but doesn't quite know how to handle the responsibility.  Jake Gyllenhaal does fine work as Adam, insecure and ineffectual, and Daniel, cocky and possibly dangerous.  He even subtly alters his facial appearances under a large beard to delineate each man's personality.  When you consider that he's playing one person, it's all the more impressive.  Seeing one man's reconciliation of his life choices and mistakes is endlessly fascinating, and Villeneuve again frames his movie imaginatively and with the perfect pace.

Nice cameo for Isabella Rossellini as well, as "Mother".  Those viewers who find ENEMY vaguely (or blatantly) Lynchian will have one more element to enjoy.