By: Keaton Marcus
I recently had the gift of watching the only English-speaking film from Denis Villeneuve that I hadn’t seen, and that was Enemy. I glossed over it in the past because it was known as his weakest movie, and only decided to watch it days ago. WHAT. THE. HELL. I wrote that for two reasons. One: this is a fantastic movie with great performances, an eerie score and hauntingly beautiful imagery. Two: It has to be the most confusing film I have ever seen, and that is a hard bar to surpass considering what my brain has witnessed. Enemy is almost like if Only God Forgives focused less on violence and more on interesting characters while providing all the necessary visual storytelling. It combines both scarring visuals with a narrative that’s too rarely seen in cinema. Despite not being his greatest movie, it certainly is not his worst, and I’d even go as far as to call it a masterpiece. Then again, basically all of Villeneuve’s films are. This film is too much for just a simple review, and calls for an in-depth analysis.
To start this whole thing off, I’d like to make a note that I’ve never done before. Previous analyzed articles that I’ve done have all been open to interpretation. Take Portrait of a Lady on Fire…Me explaining that film was strictly opinion and not fact. On the other hand, with Enemy, there are correct and incorrect interpretations. Buckle up and saddle up readers, because this film is truly bonkers. According to Chris Stuckmann’s analysis, many different articles have tried to analyze this movie with complete failure, claiming that spiders were taking over the world and that Jake Gyllenhaal’s character has an identical twin. WRONG! I will elaborate more on this later, but the two Gyllenhaals in the film are the exact same person. Again, more on this soon. Let’s start with a quote from director Denis Villeneuve, who actually provided his thoughts on explaining the film. In two interviews, the filmmaker explained that this is a documentary of sorts about the main character’s subconscious, to which I completely agree with. The entire movie is not about a doppelgänger, but an all-out war between two halves of the character’s subconscious. Take note that this came from the mouth of the man who made the film, and not solely from myself. The real question is: What would cause Jake’s character to start a battle with his own mind, and what’s going on with that spider imagery? It’s time to dive in.
Just so readers didn’t realize, there are two versions of Jake in this movie, a history teacher, and an actor. From now on, I will differentiate the two by calling them Nerdy Jake and Fancy Pants Jake. All caught up? Good. While watching, it’s reasonably simple to tell the difference between the two Jakes. Nerdy Jake always appears unkempt, messy and wearing cheap clothing. In direct contrast to this, Fancy Pants Jake has on expensive clothes, his general appearance is tidy, clean and he wears a wedding ring. Enemy opens with a voiceover from Jake’s mother (Isabella Rossellini), who sounds concerned about the state of his apartment, and it’s clear she’s saying this from a voicemail. We then quickly cut to Helen Bell (Sarah Gadon) nude and pregnant before the words “Chaos is order yet undeciphered” appear on screen, a quote from the source material of the movie. Another cut to black brings audiences to seeing Fancy Pants Jake holding a key entering a seedy sex club of some kind as men watch women pleasure themselves off camera in total silence. He then watches another woman present a large spider on a platter before moving her high heels towards it, seemingly ready to squash it. However, we cut to black before anything happens. Next, we see Nerdy Jake teaching his class. His first words are, “Control. It’s all about control.” This is before he begins to discuss dictatorships and how they censor any means of individual expression. This is important for the end of this article, so keep that sentence in mind. He then says, “And it’s important to remember this, that this is a pattern that repeats itself throughout history.” That quote is also severely essential to what happens later on, but unfortunately, you’ll have to keep reading this madness. Next, he states, “It was Hegel that said that all the greatest world events happen twice, and then Karl Marx added: the first time it was a tragedy, the second time it was a farce.”
Continuing to show us ambiguous, spidery imagery are shots of the wires above Toronto, which appear just like spider webs. As Nerdy Jake walks through a tunnel back to his apartment, he sees a mural of a man presenting a Roman fascist symbol. Keep in mind that defiance against rule, dictatorships and fear of commitment are all prominent themes in the movie. Enemy has these topics woven throughout its odd core, and it has the perfect blend of both dialogue and visuals to convey this. The next few scenes make it obvious that Nerdy Jake’s life is largely repetitious. He teaches lectures that seem memorized, sleeps with his girlfriend, Mary (Melanie Laurent) and his apartment is quite literally devoid of anything. All the man seems to have is a bed and a computer. Soon later, a co-worker recommends a film to him out of nowhere, without any lead-up or a real conversation that has any relationship with this. Nerdy Jake decides to rent the movie at a local store. It took me a few times to decipher the hidden meaning of this scene, but I realized that the song playing in the background, dubbed “The Cheater”, does have significance to the story. The lyrics are telling the tale of a man who has absolutely no business being with women because he simply cannot control his urges to sleep around, or cheat. After watching the film, he attempts to have sex with his unwilling girlfriend, forcing himself on her without success before falling asleep. In the depths of his mind, he recalls the movie he just saw, and notices a person who looks exactly like him. He suddenly wakes up and quickly skims through the film to see if all of this is real, and he finds him. It’s a literal copy of Nerdy Jake, and it’s completely mind-boggling for the character. He will soon become obsessed with meeting this actor.
He then compares a noticeably torn photograph of himself with the actor, or Fancy Pants Jake, with likely a post break-up picture, confirming that they are identical. Nerdy Jake then begins to do research about the actor, finding more films he’s had a part in. When he goes to rent the other movies, notice the movie poster in the background with the title Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. This then leads him to the talent agency of Fancy Pants Jake where he has a conversation with the security guard, who immediately recognizes him. The guard says, “You haven’t been around here for ages.” Nerdy Jake goes along with the conversation, and responds with: “Yeah, I don’t know how long it’s been.” The guard then states, “Six months I’d say.” Take note of the amount of time that the guard assumes he’s been away, as it’s important for later. I know I’m leaving readers with unanswered questions, but I do promise everything will be explained later. After, he is given a package meant for Fancy Pants Jake, and finds his address and phone number. However, when he tries to call, Fancy Pants Jake’s wife, Helen, answers the phone instead. She recognizes his voice (because him and Fancy Jake are the same person) thinking that Nerdy Jake is her husband. Following a series of awkward calls, Nerdy Jake eventually reaches Fancy Pants Jake and attempts to convince him that they need to meet.
It’s only now that we fully meet Fancy Pants Jake and see what the gist of his life is like. He’s healthy, wears nice clothes, loves blueberries, and his wife is almost unfairly suspicious that he’s cheating on her. She even questions him about the phone call he just had with Nerdy Jake and accusing him of lying about the person on the other end, claiming that it was a woman. She asks, “Are you seeing her again?” This implies that Fancy Pants Jake has cheated on her in the past. Naturally, he goes ballistic on her, screaming that it was a man. So although Fancy Pants Jake is living a better life overall, he’s dealing with the fear of commitment to women, similar to that song playing in the film rental store. It clearly makes him feel that his freedom has been removed by his pregnant wife, almost feeling controlled by the scenario. Reverting back to the “cheating in the past” point, this explains why Fancy Pants Jake was in that sex club at the beginning of the movie. He’s terrified of the responsibility of starting a family and staying with one woman in a committed relationship. To understand this theme is vital to comprehending the movie itself, prominently the spiders. Then, Nerdy Jake and Fancy Pants Jake agree to meet at a hotel room, suddenly feeling that they have a need to see each other. Helen appears at Nerdy Jake’s school, and her look upon seeing him is of extreme pain and sadness. Sure it’d be odd to see an identical man to your husband, but what’s with the overreaction? Nerdy Jake asks her, “How many months are you?” She explains that she is six months pregnant. HAH! Coincidence? I think NOT. Remember when the security guard said he was gone from the talent agency for six months? Well that’s the exact same time period when compared to the amount of months Helen was pregnant. This obviously backs up my point about Fancy Pants Jake’s feelings of captivity in his current marriage. He hasn’t even been to his talent agency since his wife got pregnant. He is dictated by a woman and child. The next moment could simply be a coincidence, but it does leave me to wonder. It’s when Helen picks up her phone to call Fancy Pants Jake, and right before Nerdy Jake walks out of the frame, he picks up his phone. This would re-affirm the director’s thoughts on the two being the same person.
Later, when Helen is sitting on the couch at home, Fancy Pants Jake returns from a run…Supposedly. He complains they are out of his favorite organic blueberries. She can’t say anything, simply staying in her position, afraid and depressed before explaining that the man she saw at the school looked exactly like Fancy Pants Jake. She even says, “What’s happening?” When he explains that he is oblivious to what she is talking about, she responds with, “I think you know.” She is slowly but surely discovering that her husband’s mind has split, desiring for him to come to terms with the fact that this has happened. This is why she appears in such emotional distress. This is when we get one of the more haunting spider visions. It shows Fancy Pants Jake walking down a hallway as a woman with a spider head passes by him casually. This is after his wife questioned him about his motives and tried to get him to explain everything to her. Almost identically, we cut to Nerdy Jake standing in a similar hallway as we see two shots of a scantily dressed woman resembling the spider lady. Next, after all of this gorgeously constructed, brilliant set-up, the two finally meet. The two initially compare themselves, noticing that they have an identical scar on each other’s chests. Nerdy Jake leaves out of pure terror, but he gives the talent agency package to Fancy Pants Jake shortly before. The next two shots are also parallels of sorts, focusing on the two dealing with this situation, and after something inside him cracks, Fancy Pants Jake decides to follow Nerdy Jake. He takes notice of Nerdy Jake’s girlfriend, and follows her as well. You may be questioning how would Fancy Pants Jake know how to find the other one? Isn’t it obvious? I mean they share the same damn conscious so I bet it’s quite simple. While on the train following Nerdy Jake’s girlfriend, Fancy Pants Jake has a quick moment in which he ogles at her head-to-toe. He quickly turns around trying to deal with the temptation of sleeping around. He has obvious issues with being faithful to his wife. Before anything else happens, the scene ends with a shot of Fancy Pants Jake in deep thought in his apartment, sitting on a chair. Did he dream that entire scenario up? Was he roaming the depths of his mind attempting to learn about the other version of himself? Perhaps.
Nerdy Jake visits his mother, explaining this precarious situation to her. His mother simply says, “The last thing you need is to be meeting strange men in hotels. You have enough trouble sticking with one woman don’t you do this.” This, once again, adds to my assumption (and fact) that Jake overall, as one person, has trouble being faithful to women. His mother offers him some blueberries to which he reluctantly rejects, stating that he doesn’t like them. “Of course you do,” his mother says. Although it may seem quite vague, it seems like Nerdy Jake is attempting to forget the memories of his other self, Fancy Pants Jake, seemingly repressing them. She explains that he has a nice apartment, a respectable job, and that he should quit his fantasy of being an actor. WHAT!!?? Isn’t this Nerdy Jake, the history teacher? Not Fancy Pants Jake, the actor? No, you fools! THEY ARE THE SAME PERSON. That’s not it, though. If you recall that in the beginning of the movie his mother actually states that she doesn’t like the state of his apartment, but now she is suddenly saying it’s nice. Since she also said that he has a respectable job and should quit his acting fantasy, this has lead me to assume that his acting job has gone no where. The small roles he was in didn’t amount to anything, and he never got that one breakout performance. So he’s just a history teacher, right? The fact that his mother said this could also be related to the fact that Helen explained that she went to his work. This concludes that Helen was just realizing the true magnitude of her husband’s psychosis, desperately trying to connect with him, to try and help him by going along with his mental illness. Possibly one of my favorite shots of all-time then appears, and it adds to the crazy spider imagery. We get a wide, beautiful shot tinted with the movie’s yellow-green color palette that’s almost nauseating. It shows a giant, otherworldly spider roaming Toronto, which has also left many people perplexed, as it did for me. No, spiders are still not taking over the world. I’ll explain more later.
Next is the scene that further confirms Jake Gyllenhaal should have won the Oscar in 2013. Seriously, this man was in Enemy and Prisoners in the same year and didn’t even get nominated. Up yours, Academy. It showcases Fancy Pants Jake practicing a question that he’s going to ask Nerdy Jake in the mirror with himself. He’s asking in the mirror over and over again if he’s had sex with his wife. Yeah, out of the blue. Fancy Pants Jake then actually confronts Nerdy Jake and asks him, “Did you f…k my wife?” In one of the most iconic moments of the film. He does this again and again, but Nerdy Jake can’t even bring himself to say anything. A heated argument ensues and a deal is made. Fancy Pants Jake will take Nerdy Jake’s girlfriend on a romantic get-away, sleep with her, and call it even, disappearing from his life forever. At least I believe that he’s intentionally starting a war with his subconscious so he can eliminate the negative parts and be with his wife forever. Nerdy Jake decides to go to Fancy Pants Jake’s wife as this battle occurs in his mind. I believe that this is the real-life Jake, the one who has gone back to see his wife. This is while the narcissistic, unfaithful Jake takes another woman out to have sex. The real Jake gets the doorman to let him in to the apartment door. The doorman just so happens to be a man who was in the club at the beginning. He mentions to Nerdy Jake that he wants to go back to this club, and explains that the lock for the place has changed, stating that new keys have been sent out. Since Nerdy Jake doesn’t know what he’s talking about, he just goes along with the conversation. When the doorman lets Nerdy Jake in, he seems to be discovering things in the apartment for the first time as he attempts to resemble Fancy Pants Jake. Nerdy Jake then notices a photograph, and it’s the same one from his apartment, except not torn. It shows himself with his wife. When Helen arrives home he continues to nervously try and become Fancy Pants Jake. During this, we cut to Fancy Pants Jake with Nerdy Jake’s girlfriend entering their hotel room. We cut back to Nerdy Jake getting into bed with Helen, nervous about taking his clothes off. She looks at him with desire and places his hand on her pregnant belly, seemingly reminding him of his responsibility. Remember, she is desperately trying to figure out her husband’s mental dilemma. The next bit is really important as she asks if he had a good day at school. This adds to my other assumption about her knowing that he is really a history teacher, explaining why his mother said he has a respectable job.
Meanwhile, Fancy Pants Jake and his other self’s girlfriend are in the middle of having sex when she notices something. He has a wedding ring mark on his finger. She gets extremely upset and immediately jumps out of bed, flustered by the discovery. Weirdly, Nerdy Jake wakes up at that exact moment, with Fancy Pants Jake’s wife sleeping by his side. Quickly, we cut back to Fancy Pants Jake and Nerdy Jake’s girlfriend, who suddenly wants nothing to do with him. They are driving on their way back to Toronto and a terrible argument begins. This is spliced with scenes of Nerdy Jake walking back and forth before eventually crying. His wife comforts him, and their hands interlock as he says through tears that he’s sorry. During this, Melanie Lauren’t character and Fancy Pants Jake continue arguing, but back in Toronto, his wife tells Nerdy Jake that she wants him to stay as they embrace on the couch, kissing. Fancy Pants Jake and Melanie’s argument gets worse with her insulting him, claiming that he’s not a real man. This truly makes Fancy Pants Jake snap and he swerves the car, crashing it in violent fashion. We get more spider imagery when the camera zooms on the cracked window of the car, representing a spider web. I feel that in this moment Jake has successfully used his subconscious war with himself to effectively eliminate the negative self. The next morning, we hear a radio broadcast explaining the car crash incident. Since Fancy Pants Jake, or the negative side of this character, has been killed, I will refer to Nerdy Jake as simply Jake. Jake turns off the radio while his wife is in the shower. He finally opens the talent agency package that’s been shown throughout the film. In it, there is a key to the club. He stares at it with a look of temptation and lust, still struggling to resist the urge of being unfaithful despite eliminating Fancy Pants Jake. His wife says his mother called as he continues to stare at the key. He asks if she has anything to do tonight because he has to “go out”. This clearly implies that he wants to go back to the club, unfaithful once again. Some people have called this the scariest ending of all-time in cinema. It’s after Helen doesn’t answer and Jake goes into the room where she’s in. A massive spider suddenly crawls up in the corner of the room in fear and anxiety, squeaking in terror at Jake’s presence. Right! Readers still don’t know what all this spider imagery means! Time to finally spill the beans.
This ending had audiences screaming three words…What the f..k!!?? And I get it, I had a similar reaction. But there is a real meaning behind the conclusion. The spiders in the film represent women. I mean, at least in the ways that Jake views women. In the real world, spiders entrap their prey in their webs, entangling them. Oftentimes when mating, the female spider actually kills the male one right after and occasionally even before they mate. The film is basically saying that Jake’s character has been devoured, lost his freedom in the spiders that are the women in his life, trapped in the web that is his marriage. The references to dictatorship and being unwillingly ruled obviously has to do with Jake feeling this way about the responsibility of having a child and being faithful to his wife. In the beginning of the movie, Fancy Pants Jake watches a woman about to squash a spider at a sex club. Principally, through his unfaithfulness, he almost longs to “squash” his wife. Metaphorically, of course. This is why he goes somewhere where love doesn’t exist, where men can watch their fantasies being acted out for them, free of responsibility. The woman in the hallway with the spider head supports this, and the scantily clad one that Nerdy Jake sees resembles that woman. But what about the giant one roaming Toronto? The scene took place seconds after he met with his mother, so it’s only reasonable to assume that this spider represents his mother. Then, of course, there’s the final spider in the closing scene. Why did his wife turn into a massive spider? And why did such a big creature react in fear? And why was his look after he sees the spider almost one of acceptive disappointment and not shock? It was almost like he has come to terms with what his life is now like. Going back a bit, when Jake finds the new key to the club, he gets a look of temptation on his face, an urge to watch his deepest desires. He immediately decides that he’s going that very night, and when his wife is revealed to be a spider, she backs up quickly in fear of “getting squashed”. In other terms, his general unfaithfulness and lack of responsibility towards their relationship. This is why Jake is watching a woman squash a spider, because that’s what he really wants…To kill true love. After having eliminated his unfaithful side of himself, but at the first sign of temptation, he gives in with no extra thought. He goes back to his adulterous ways, which explains why his wife reacted in terror. Jake is the spider killer, not being able to control his urges and commit to a healthy relationship. He gives in too easily to sleeping with other women, and that prevents him from having a good life with his wife, or to the eventual family that he will have. He views all of this as a dictatorship, which we know is something that he is defiant to. The Attack of the 50 Foot Woman poster, along with the song “The Cheater”, and his torn photo of him and his wife all support his fear of women, unfaithfulness, and attempts to ruin his marriage.
Then there’s that look of acceptive disappointment on his face. Remember when I pointed out that Nerdy Jake explained that “This is a pattern that repeats itself throughout history.” It may seem like a stretch, but I believe that Jake is realizing that he’s starting the same pattern again despite having eliminated the negative portion of himself. Repeating his mistakes almost instantly after the first sign of temptation. Intriguingly, the film truly ends with him missing a call from his mother, and begins with the voicemail of the call. Take note that earlier in the movie, Nerdy Jake pointed out that Hegel said something about all of history’s greatest events happening twice, and that Karl Marx explained that the first time it was a tragedy and the second time it was a farce. I believe that after him getting over his adultery, he realizes that this repeating process is going to become a joke eventually, a farce. He’s just going to have to deal with this unavoidable negative about his life. As humans, when an issue repeats itself and never goes away, we tend to accept it, and perhaps even find the humor in it, or the farce. This explains the look on his face. In conclusion, what does the film’s title mean? Who is this Enemy? The only right answer is himself. It’s his desires, fears, and inability to have a normal relationship. This will inevitably lead to the carnage of his sanity, marriage, and maybe his life. Perhaps he does actually work things out, and it can be depressing to think that he will eventually kill himself. But this is only the implied ending of his life. Who really knows. Overall, this is a grand filmmaking achievement, thrilling, sharply directed, extraordinarily acted and beautifully filmed. It’s an underrated future classic, and Denis Villeneuve has further established his filmmaking genius.
