Enemy(2013)

This film did not work for me at all. If it weren’t for Jake Gyllenhaal’s absurd face card I probably would have fallen asleep, despite the heavy-handed stylistic aesthetic and non-stop eerie sound track to keep me alert. Spoilers a head.

The premise of it isn’t terrible, and I imagine was relatively novel in 2013 and only feels cliché now. Where it missteped was the subject - it is not worthy of the form. Using split personalities to abstract infidelity feels like, I don’t know, hiring a full orchestra to sing happy birthday for a child? By the end I already I had a good idea of what was going on, but when the reveal happened, it felt so underwhelming that I thought maybe I misunderstood the message, because like, that’s it? and I became more disappointed after confirming yes, that was indeed it. 

Maybe I haven’t seen enough but I feel like there is still so much potential themes and material in the actual twin topic. I’ve been thinking about this ever since Twinless. What happens if one actually meets someone else that looks and sounds identical to themself in the wild, especially if the relationship is curiosity rather than fear/animosity driven? That could be a great comedy. Someone should make that.