Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Measured
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Mild
- paranoid
- moody
- surreal
- late night viewing
- thoughtful movie night
What critics said
Critics broadly praised Denis Villeneuve’s moody direction and Jake Gyllenhaal’s dual performance in an unusually adventurous, tightly constructed psychological thriller, while finding its ambiguity divisive.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Giant and uncanny spiders recur throughout the film, linking Adam's anxiety, desire, and fears about entrapment.
Adam encounters Anthony, an actor who looks exactly like him, and their identities and relationships become increasingly entangled.
Adam's paranoia, delusion, nightmares, and shifting relationship to Anthony make the boundary between literal events and psychic experience deliberately uncertain.
Contemporary Toronto is depicted through drab apartments, anonymous streets, and institutional interiors that mirror Adam's monotonous, constricted life.
Films like Enemy, and why
Mulholland Drive
shares an identity-doubling mystery, paranoid atmosphere, surreal imagery, and psychologically ambiguous storytelling
The Machinist
combines an anxious urban thriller with a divided protagonist, cryptic symbolism, and an open-ended psychological puzzle
Dead Ringers
uses doppelgängers, erotic unease, dreamlike tension, and uncertainty about reality to explore fractured identity
The Double
offers a cerebral mystery thriller driven by doubling, paranoia, symbolic motifs, and an unsettling atmosphere
Movie Details
- Director
- Denis Villeneuve
- Release Date
- 2014-03-14
- Runtime
- 91 min
- Rating
- 6.8 / 10 (6624)
Cast
- Jake Gyllenhaal
- Mélanie Laurent
- Sarah Gadon
- Isabella Rossellini
- Joshua Peace
- Tim Post
- Kedar Brown
- Darryl Dinn
- Misha Highstead
- Megan Mane
Where to watch in United States
- Rent
- Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home, FlixFling, Spectrum On Demand
- Buy
- Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home, FlixFling
Streaming options come from TMDB and change over time.
Common questions
- What is Enemy about?
- A withdrawn Toronto professor’s search for his identical double spirals into a cryptic confrontation with desire, identity, and self-sabotage.
- What is Enemy like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of Enemy as measured, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.
- Is Enemy violent?
- Only mildly. Ember rates the violence in Enemy as mild.
- What did critics think of Enemy?
- Critics broadly praised Denis Villeneuve’s moody direction and Jake Gyllenhaal’s dual performance in an unusually adventurous, tightly constructed psychological thriller, while finding its ambiguity divisive.
- Which films are like Enemy?
- Films with a similar feel include Mulholland Drive, The Machinist, Dead Ringers, and The Double.
- How long is Enemy?
- Enemy runs 91 minutes.
- Where can I watch Enemy?
- In United States, Enemy is available to rent or buy from Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home, FlixFling, Spectrum On Demand.
