Reflecting on "Enemy"

"Enemy" is one of the best that I've watched in the psychological thriller - i.e. mind-bending - genre.  It's a film that would've been a must-see, a must-discuss in my course on psychopathology years ago.  I want to capture first a thoughtful commentary from Erica Bass, then two comments from me:

On a more serious note, I loved your explanation of this movie. I saw your non-spoiler video months ago and kept meaning to watch the movie... finally watched it and was feeling confused and knew I should've re-watched your video beforehand to refresh. This is not the type of movie you just watch on a whim and get up and move on, you sit and think about it for a long time and decipher the meaning, which I love. A few minutes into THIS video, I understood the movie more and was proud of myself for finally understanding one of these mindfuck movies on the first watch. I just watched Donnie Darko yesterday, read something that explained it better which helped a lot but I was still was a little confused and need to give it a second watch to fully get it.

This movie is a must watch for more intellectual moviegoers as it could end up being a great frame of reference for this phenomenon of fear of commitment and infidelity. His fear of commitment stems from the problems and unhappiness in his marriage. Instead of facing those issues and working on them as a team, he feels trapped, threatened and controlled by his wife, much like an insect would feel being trapped in a spider's web which is why he fears it and tries to run away or create a new life. This all started 6 months ago once he found out his wife was pregnant because a child would make this commitment as permanent as it gets and he needed to get a steady job that he didn't enjoy so he could support his family and he hated himself for giving up on his acting career and resented his wife for forcing him to give up his dream which is why he would rather have a girlfriend on the side than face his wife. His wife visits him at work and he begins to realize that his wife is 6 months pregnant and scared of what he's become; as Actor Jake, he can lie to her, but when she sees him as History Teacher Jake, he knows she's figured out his secret life and that's when he decides to end it once and for all. This is where Actor Jake get's the idea to accuse Teacher Jake of sleeping with his wife; he's creating a war in his mind to get rid of his cheating ways but says he wants to get even by having a date with his girlfriend and disappearing from his life. This is Jake's way of having a final fling and saying goodbye to that life. I agree that this all happens in his mind, but I'm not refusing the idea/possibility that he did actually have one last fling with his mistress and put his wedding ring on or nearby for her to find so they can fight and end it (if it was only in his mind, the breakup never happened in real life). I find it interesting that Jake turned off the radio before the newscaster announced if anyone in the accident had died. He killed off his unfaithful persona and mistress in his mind but that part of him will never be dead and gone which is proven by the very next part where he finds the key, an offer of temptation, and he takes it almost immediately with little or no hesitation. The sigh he gives when seeing his wife a spider, is as you said, disappointed acceptance, of the pattern he is about to repeat, however, it's also just the same metaphor that he understands he will be trapped in his marriage (web) regardless of his temptations which is why he accepts the key so soon after fully giving in to his wife and commitment to her, he can either stay with her and be miserable, or stay with her and have some voyeuristic adventures on the side to feed the part of him that needs to feel some sort of control or freedom in life. His look at the end and the sigh is his disappointment and disgust in himself for being unfaithful and making his wife fear him (even tho she is the predator in the scenario seeing as tho she's the spider and he is the captured insect), as well as acceptance of committing to his wife and coming to terms that they will never be happy together because of his spotty past. He accepts that his unfaithful past has made his wife distrust him and she will never trust him therefore he might as well give in to his temptations and patterns because he will never earn her trust and they will never be happy, so he agrees to stay with her and takes the key anyways because he's given up hope in his marriage.

In response to

But the woman on the photo is not his wife. She is a woman that is not even in the movie... where does she fit in?

maybe it's the woman in the sex club??

You're on to something, Paul, with the idea that the woman in the photo is Anthony's wife AND may also be the woman in the sex club. It's hard to tell for sure, but here's my speculation: Anthony still loves his wife and is sexually attracted to her. But he longs for their earlier life, when they were younger, perhaps just dating, and weren't expecting a child. Psychologically, Anthony wants that earlier, sexier wife to squash the current, pregnant wife (symbolized by the plump spider). Anthony doesn't seem to be enjoying the sex show, and looks downright conflicted and morose. Why? He's wrestling with an internal, psychological battle, which Chris spoke to in his review.

A terrific, well-argued interpretation, Chris! After seeing the film a second time, I also believe that the "real" character is Anthony Claire and he's deeply troubled by all the implications of a pregnant wife, which you mentioned. It's a very intriguing psychological profile indeed, suggestive of a Dissociative Identity Disorder. There is reason to believe that Anthony's "real" personality is portrayed by Adam, because his wife seems quite familiar and comfortable with Adam. So to build on the argument that Anthony is deeply troubled by his wife's pregnancy, Anthony deploys two defense mechanisms simultaneously: (a) He splits off (unconsciously) his real identity and renames him Adam Bell the history professor (his "respectable job") and (b) he fashions (consciously) another identity as Daniel St. Claire the actor. In a way, then, the battle is between Adam and Daniel, the outcome of which, psychological speaking, is (a') the return of the real identity back to Anthony and to his wife, and (b') the symbolic destruction of the sexualized, philandering Daniel in the car crash. All of this is very good, but the journey back to health and fidelity is only part way done: Anthony has re-owned himself, that is, rid himself of those two identities. But the elemental trouble of a pregnant wife remains deeply rooted and unresolved within him. So unless he undergoes psychoanalysis, or rather finds the means and determination to keep on that journey back to health and fidelity, he is quite liable to stray again. That big spider in the room, which in Anthony's psyche represents his pregnant wife, is horrified at the prospects of his infidelity recurring. Put in another way, that spider is a construct of his unconscious and therefore knows exactly what's going on in that unconscious. Anthony himself recognizes this, and therefore feels unsurprisingly resigned, even dispirited at being tempted once again to go back to the sex club. Chris, I absolutely agree: This is one fine masterpiece of cinema!
 

Memory and Dream in "Some Static Started"

This is a brilliant mind-bending thriller of a short film.  I have a working idea of what is going on in this story, but I'm still mulling it over.  

But here goes:  The wounded man sitting on the make-shift couch talking (Bleeding Man), and the man with the bushy beard who looks at him but doesn't say a thing (Shaving Man) are in the present.  They are the same two men in that motel room, from many years ago, with Shaving Man sitting on the bed and Bleeding Man sitting by the window.  This is Bleeding Man's memory of the past.

The lady walking up the corridor, into the room, then to the bathroom is the same lady in that old motel with the two men.  The Bleeding Man referenced this sequence as a dream.  What I suspect is that Shaving Man, who was sitting on the bed, actually killed her way back then.  Notice that at the start of the film, there were two blood stains on the edge of the bed.  I think the blood is the lady's, as she was killed by Shaving Man, who then sat down on the bed afterwards and placed his blood-stained hands on the sheets.  

The reason she looks the same in the corridor sequence is that she died, and therefore never grew old, in Bleeding Man's mind's eye.  She must've screamed, as Shaving Man was killing her, and this scream was forever embedded in Bleeding Man's psyche.       

Back to the present, Shaving Man stabs Bleeding Man to death, in order to settle an old score having to do with that fateful day in the motel room.  Maybe they were a criminal trio, and the lady and Shaving Man were a romantic pair.  Maybe the lady and Bleeding Man had sex on the side, which Shaving Man found out about somehow while talking to someone on the phone.  So he was not happy, in the least, and must've killed her straightaway.  Which must've pained him terribly, at the same time, and thus tried to reassure her that everything was going to be okay.

As Bleeding Man sat dying, that nightmarish day replayed itself one last time, as a dream, which in some mind-twisted way was now about the lady discovering him, that is, his dead body.  From the look of the two men in the present, the lady may have also "witnessed" the present-day murder.

Memory and dream, one murder and a second murder, all collide and become fluid in a surreal nightmare for the wounded man.

The Surreal Insomnia of "Fight Club"

Edward Norton, as the Narrator

With insomnia, nothing's real. Everything's far away. Everything's a copy of a copy of a copy.

Brad Pitt, as Tyler Durden

The first rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club.

Helena Bonham Carter, as Marla Singer

You take tuberculosis. My smoking doesn't go over at all.

We Dare Dream Of

"Vanilla Sky" was co-written, directed and co-produced by Cameron Crowe.

There is at least
The promise of
Whatever want
We want, and love
Whatever love
We dare dream of –

Tom Cruise, as David Ames, and Penelope Cruz, as Sofia Serrano (image credit)

Except that, well,
We never know
Where things turn to
Or how dreams go –
What can we find
When we are blind?

(image credit)

This is your time
This is your day
You've got it all
Don't blow it away.

~Paul McCartney

Poetry by Ron Villejo

Shattered Island

"Shutter Island" was directed by Martin Scorsese.

I.

How much of war's atrocity can man endure?
How much of horror at home must he further endure?

Leonardo DiCaprio, as Teddy Daniels, and Michelle Williams, as Dolores Chanal (image credit)

II.

For Shutter Island is a metaphor for mind,
And Shutter Island is a pun for shattered mind.

(image credit)

III.

Live the monstrosity of what he had become,
Or with a carving die the good he could become.

(image credit)

Poetry by Ron Villejo

Plant an Idea

"Inception" was written, directed and co-produced by Christopher Nolan.

I.

The opposite
Of extraction
Is inception.

Leonardo DiCaprio, as Dom Cobb (image credit)

II.

Steal an idea.
Plant an idea.

Ken Watanabe, as Mr. Saito (image credit)

III.

In order for inception to work out,
We must instill reception to a doubt.

Ellen Page, as Ariadne (image credit)

Poetry by Ron Villejo

Working on a Theme: Mind Bending

I'm working on a theme, fleshing it out ...

I'm working on a theme, boning it up ...

I'm working on a theme, bending it around ...

I'm working on a theme, muscling it through ...