The doppelganger premise is a metaphor. The two men represent the double life of one man: a history professor with a pregnant wife, who visits sex clubs, is a serial cheater and has a mistress (The "actor" lives with the wife because the philandering necessitates constant lying). The spider is a metaphor for his wife, who makes him feel trapped; while the totalitarian state is the flipside metaphor for his double life (i.e. a system of lies that is consuming and destroying all aspects of his identity). He is scared of this side of himself, but he can't escape it. It has taken control of the whole person. The professor is a dazed cipher who is discovering his own life like an outsider looking in.
The cornered spider at the end is actually the beginning of the story, as he turns the tables on his "captor" with a lie and "escapes" to a world of sexual freedom (represented by the stripper stepping on the spider). The car crash with his mistress is the apotheosis of his lies and recklessness.
Although its based on a book, so this is probably all demonstrably wrong.
As bizarre as this movie is. What's stranger is that it's based on a book called The Double written by Jose Saramago in 2002. Another movie was made the same year (2013) with an identical premise as this directed by Richard Ayoade called The Double which is also based on a book of the same name, but written over a century early by a different author.
I don't know if that's all a happy coincidence or if this was planned for some reason. At the end of the day, however, I enjoyed The Double by Ayoade more.
Interesting concept, but even with the metaphor explanation, it still plateaus before, disappointingly, fizzling away into nothing.
And normally I'm all for beautiful colour schemes, but the yellow here quickly grew from interesting to oppressing, and not in a good way (in my humble opinion etc etc).
Extremely well acted but very strange movie will have you puzzling all the way through. If you like weird and confusing movies than is the one for you. For me it was just........well ok. That ending......wtf......so now what....
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greenhorg
Here's my theory:The cornered spider at the end is actually the beginning of the story, as he turns the tables on his "captor" with a lie and "escapes" to a world of sexual freedom (represented by the stripper stepping on the spider). The car crash with his mistress is the apotheosis of his lies and recklessness.
Although its based on a book, so this is probably all demonstrably wrong.
maxdbn
Biggest 'WTF' moment of my life.God
this is like if david lynch and david cronenberg co-directed a film adaptation of a kafka novel.memo1
The cast signed a confidentiality agreement that doesn't allow them to speak and/or explain to the press the meaning of spiders in the movie.RockHopper92
As bizarre as this movie is. What's stranger is that it's based on a book called The Double written by Jose Saramago in 2002. Another movie was made the same year (2013) with an identical premise as this directed by Richard Ayoade called The Double which is also based on a book of the same name, but written over a century early by a different author.I don't know if that's all a happy coincidence or if this was planned for some reason. At the end of the day, however, I enjoyed The Double by Ayoade more.
Larkspire
Interesting concept, but even with the metaphor explanation, it still plateaus before, disappointingly, fizzling away into nothing.And normally I'm all for beautiful colour schemes, but the yellow here quickly grew from interesting to oppressing, and not in a good way (in my humble opinion etc etc).
maborosi
Great directing and everything. I think jake gyllenhaal is one hell of an actor.. sexy, persuasive and talented.Armoreska
Video analysishttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9AWkqRwd1I
Siskoid
An introspective film based on Portuguese writer José Saramago's The Double starring Jake Gyllenhaal as both a listless history professor and his double, an actor the former finds in various bit parts on DVDs. Bizarre and ambiguous, Enemy owes as much to Kafka as it does to magical realism, with just a hint of Guillermo del Toro, a fable about identity and intimacy and how we might hate parts of ourselves. I don't want to say too much because ambiguity is a big part of this, and in any case, I still had questions at the end. I wish I'd watched it with other people. It's that kind of film. And lovely to see Toronto play itself - it's so rare - even as a smoggy dreamscapeYousef Mousa
the ending !MoutardedShroom
this movie fucked my brain just in the right way. also, getting to decipher it afterwards just adds to the enjoyment...bf2jay88
Very complex and abstract...yet so powerful.Earring72
Extremely well acted but very strange movie will have you puzzling all the way through. If you like weird and confusing movies than is the one for you. For me it was just........well ok. That ending......wtf......so now what....rociwi
WTFJazzy
This one got me stumped.Showing items 1 – 15 of 25