Enemy (2013)

 

Genre: Mystery/ Thriller

Time: 1h 35mins

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Quick Summary: A man seeks out his exact look-alike after spotting him in a movie.

What did I even just watch?

Honestly, I was just so confused when watching this. I think my head hurt afterwards and It wasn't even worth it. Maybe I'm not smart enough to understand this. Imagine watching paint dry, but every once in a while a spider crawls across the paint and then crawls out of sight. That's pretty much how I felt during this.

Okay so this does look nice, the whole film being overlayed in this dirty yellow and the dim lighting helps with the feeling of unease and gloominess. I also think the idea of this film is interesting but it is so boring and slow. Nothing actually happens for most of this film, and it flicks backwards and forwards between these people that you have to figure out who is who through body language and various other subtle things.

So basically this guy finds out he has a doppelganger, and freaks out. I didn't really understand why he freaked out so much until I had to research the whole film after I had watched it. Then I was just disappointed. Everything just seemed so overdramatic and it tried so hard to be something, "Mind Blowing" and "Thought-provoking" but it just fell completely flat on its face. The over-dramatization of events made it feel artificial and unconvincing. 

The themes, I won't spoil but I will say I had to spend a while researching about this film to start understanding and I feel like you really shouldn't have to do that to understand a whole film. You should be able to pick up things throughout and piece them together. This had nothing. It was an absolute mess.

I understand that some people who enjoy artsy films may find value in this movie, but the majority of people, including myself, might not enjoy it. The film lacked any real suspense, and I found myself waiting for something to happen. When things did occur, they were bizarre and difficult to comprehend. Additionally, the symbolism of the spiders seemed out of place and did not seem to have any connection with anything. Overall, this film left me feeling confused and unsatisfied.

3/10

"Control, it's all about control. Every dictatorship has one obsession and that's it. In ancient Rome they gave the people bread and circuses. They kept population busy with entertainment but other dictatorships used other strategies to control ideas, the knowledge... how do they do that? Lower education, they limit culture, censor information, they censor any means of individual expression and is important to remember this, that this is a pattern, that repeats itself through out history."

"How many months are you?

Six months."

 "Hey, you haven't been around here for ages.

Yeah, I don't know how long it's been.

 Six months, I'd say."