Enemy 2013 ****

It’s hard to imagine what Jose Saramago’s book is like; Denis Villneuve’s accomplished psychological thriller is so cinematic, there’s few trace of the literary origins. Enemy explores the idea of dopplegangers, on old chestnut from The Man Who Haunted Himself to The Double, but adds a new and disconcerting angle. Jake Gyllenhaal gives two subtly differentiated performances as a college lecturer and a aspiring actor who share the same face and body; when Adam spots his look-alike in a movie bit part, he sets out to track him down, only to be confronted with Anthony. Anthony suggests swapping places, and their respective partners Sarah Gadon and Melanie Laurent seem unable to spot the difference. Villneuve makes clever use of Toronto’s architecture to suggest the dualities of the deception, and Enemy also offers a weird backdrop of sex-clubs where naked women in high-heels squash giant spiders in stilettos. It’s weird fare, but not as overblown as Villneuve’s well acted but overlong and melodramatic Prisoners, and brilliantly performed by Gyllenhaal in probably his best performance to date.