Not much has been released or even said about Enemy, the second work by Denis Villeneuve starring Jake Gyllenhaal since Prisoners, the powerful drama that premiered at TIFF on September 20th, 2013. No US release date has been set, but from the poster and the just-over-a-minute teaser trailer, replete with ennui from the content to the wandering and sorrowful music, we can expect the same moody introspection and desolate spaciousness that characterized Prisoners. Screened as a special presentation at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, the trailer asks more questions then answers, providing just enough information to set the scene without revealing any of the plot.
The teaser is full of disjointed and interconnected beats of Gyllenhaal, giving a lecture at a University where he teaches about dictators and control in some moments, interspersed with Gyllenhaal’s seemingly despondent relationship with his girlfriend, coitus and walk-out included. Gyllenhaal seems disheveled, preoccupied and uninterested; his world is beige, poorly furnished and bleak. That, coupled with the vaguely insidious soundtrack, is all we have to go on so far, and it is definitely enough to get the wheels turning about the emotional undertow of the plot. In text it’s apparent that Gyllenhaal gets double-billing for playing his doppelgänger, but only time and more released information will tell what will come of this meeting outside of scattered hints that the results will be grim.
An adaptation of Nobel-Prize-winning author José Saramago’s novel “The Double”, this work proposes to solidify the brooding, expansive aesthetic that Villeneuve gave glimpses of in Prisoners. The film’s cast also features Mélanie Laurent, Isabella Rosselllini, Sara Gadon, Stephen R. Hart and Jane Moffat and has recently been picked up by A24 for US distribution. Set to release in Spain on December 13th, 2013, it’ll be interesting to see how this film compares and measures up to Prisoners for Thrills, aesthetic, and overall artistic merit.
Enemy is directed by Denis Villeneuve and stars Jack Gyllenhaal, Mélanie Laurent, Isabella Rosselllini, Sara Gadon, Stephen R. Hart and Jane Moffat. There’s no official release date yet set.
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By: Matt Oakes
Started blogging about film in college when the university paper wouldn’t have him. Dislikes your consensus film Twitter favorites. Devotee of horror movies that make him die a little inside. Catches films at festivals when he can. Proud SFCS and OFCS member and Tomatometer-approved critic. Editor-in-chief of Silver Screen Riot.
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