Enemy (2013)
As possibly the least-seen of Gyllenhaal’s post-End Of Watch movies, Enemy is significant because, while other Gyllenhaal movies showcase his vast talent and range while demonstrating his ability to remain a team player within noteworthy casts (End Of Watch, Prisoners, Everest), Enemy casts him largely alongside himself.
Not to be confused with the thematically similar The Double, by Richard Ayoade – which is an adaptation of the Dostoyevsky novella of the same name – Enemy is an adaptation of the 2002 novel The Double, by Jose Saramago, and is directed by award-winning filmmaker Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners).
In Enemy, a mild-mannered college history professor named Adam Bell discovers the existence of his doppelganger, Anthony Claire, while watching a movie. Becoming obsessed, he stalks Anthony, and the two enter into a bizarre game of identity swapping that ends in tragedy.
Gyllenhaal plays both Adam and Anthony, who are two very different personalities. As such, the film is the perfect vehicle to showcase the actor’s range. Coming, as it does, between films of far higher profile, Enemy is a demonstration of Gyllenhaal’s commitment to substance over showiness. The actor has always made room for independent film, and with Enemy, he delivers an acting masterclass, before moving on to the wiry and disturbing Louis Bloom in Nightcrawler, and then on to the enormous, rage-filled Billy Hope in Southpaw.
There is really nothing more fitting than following that with a movie about climbing Everest.
