The Cycles of Self Destruction in Enemy (2013, dir by Denis Villeneuve) by Jared Watson

"It was Hegel who said that all the greatest world events happen twice. And then, Karl Marx added, the first time it was a tragedy and the second time it was a farce."

It's been a long week, you're stressed, and you need to wind down. Hey, why not rent a movie? Pop that bad boy in, sit back, and relax. You're about halfway through the movie, it's not bad, nothing really to complain about. Wait, what was that? Rewind. That person, they look familiar. It was too fast, rewind again. Pause. What the hell? Why does that background actor look exactly like you? It's not just uncanny, it's you, but of course it's not you, you don't remember ever being an actor, but it's you, but it's not you.

This is exactly what happens to Adam Bell (Jake Gyllenhaal) in Denis Villeneuve's 2013 neo-noir thriller Enemy. After seeing his doppelganger in the film he rented, Adam hunts down Anthony Saint Clair, also played by Gyllenhaal, and attempts to set up an in person meeting. His whole world shatters as he finds himself suddenly caught up in a game of infidelity and lies.

Gyllenhaal and Villeneuve have both claimed that the movie is about each other's subconscious. The inner battle that takes place in their minds. The personas that get suppressed, and whether that might be the right one or not.

Villeneuve wanted to have a creative partnership with an actor in the same way a director might have with a cinematographer. Although he had never worked with Gyllenhaal before (Enemy was shot before Villeneuve’s US breakout movie Prisoners also starring Gyllenhall), the relationship turned out to be exactly what he was looking for. Gyllenhaal often disagreed with Villeneuve, causing them to butt heads a little, which only served to push the creativity of both of them for the better.

In a pivotal scene, Gyllenhaal almost literally acts opposite himself. Using motion control camera movement, a tennis ball on a stick, and some incredible acting by Gyllenhaal himself, they were able to make it look seamless. Gyllenhaal would record a take as one character, and then record a take as the other with the lines he just recorded playing in his head. He would then add lines every now and then, and rerecord the opposite character, reacting to the new lines he just added.

It can be said that Enemy is about the alternate personalities we all have, and how each one might control us at different times, and with different people. Sometimes our more toxic personalities might overpower the more compassionate ones, thus creating a dangerous environment for us to live in. Try as we might to suppress those destructive personas, even succeeding at times, they might rise back up occasionally, creating a never ending cycle.

Enemy is a devastating look at how we destroy ourselves and our loved ones when we give in to unhealthy desires that separate us from ourselves. It is also a story of the often futile pursuit for redemption that comes after that very destruction of self. Even after piecing ourselves back together, sometimes the glue just doesn't hold.

Jared Watson is a moviemaker, writer, and avid cinefile. Check out his work: https://www.ridgeviewdrive.com/