I started writing this double review a few weeks ago, but as has been the way with me recently, I have found my muse has wandered, and with it, my inclination to review has wavered.
But then I saw that both Total Film and Empire have stolen my idea of doing a double review of these two movies, and outraged by this I have found renewed passion for finishing my own double review.
Since I started my review blog in 2011 I have reviewed every film of Mr Gyllenhaal's and I must admit, I felt a little like I had let myself down when I didn't write a review of Nightcrawler. And it wasn't for lack of liking the film either. It was simply a lack of time (and as mentioned above - inclination).
When I travelled to London recently to see Jake's new movie Enemy, I thought that might give me the excuse I was looking for to finally put my thoughts down on Nightcrawler too.
Nightcrawler opens on Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) stealing from a construction site, and then quickly shows him assaulting and then robbing a policeman sent to investigate the situation. He then tries to talk himself into a job with the man he sells his stolen wares to. Turns out the guy will happily buy stolen goods but he won't employ a thief. All Lou wants is a job. On his way home he sees a traffic accident, and the camera men who are immediately on the scene filming this for TV news corporations. News stations who are out to up their ratings through any means necessary. Lou gets himself a camera, a police scanner and an assistant and before he knows it, he's earning money for his daring and sometimes disturbing footage.
As a long time Gyllenhaalic (yes, that's our given name), I can certainly say that I have never seen Jake portray a character quite like this. Even in Donnie Darko, whilst the character had mental health issues that might have made his behaviour unfathomable, I don't think I would go so far as to class him as disturbing. But Lou Bloom is definitely that. He has no sense of boundaries, and makes no apologies for his reactions to the situations he finds himself in.
In many ways, the film also makes no apologies, which is refreshing, but also adds a darkness to the film. As such, some may find the film that was already dark - in both tone and setting - goes too far. Personally I found it an interesting character study and a great performance from Gyllenhaal that bounces perfectly between creepy and intriguing. This might be the first character he's portrayed that I didn't want to sleep with, or in fact meet in a darkened alley, and yet I'd love to pick his brain.
It won't be one for everyone, so maybe only for the true Gyllenhaalic, or those who like their thrillers dark with a hint of pitch blackness. 7 out of 10.
Viewing Date - 27th October 2014
UK Release Date - 31st October 2014
Cast Overview:
Jake Gyllenhaal ~ Louis Bloom
Bill Paxton ~ Joe Loader
Ann Cusack ~ Linda
Rene Russo ~ Nina Romina
Written and Directed by Dan Gilroy
I believe Enemy actually came out in the US sometime in 2013, which is weird because until very recently I'd not heard of it at all. I heard it was showing at my favourite London cinema The PCC and decided that I could not call myself a true Gyllenhaalic if I didn't go to see it. A little over a month later I found the DVD for sale in Sainsbury's so now I'm really confused as to how it managed to get a DVD release so soon after the cinematic one, which according to IMDb was only January of this year in the UK.
Anyway, onto the film. Enemy sees Jake take on two different roles, one is Adam Bell - history professor, who discovers an actor named Anthony Claire (Jake's second role in the movie) after watching a movie a colleague recommends to him. Anthony is the spitting image of Adam and understandably, Adam has some questions relating to this mysterious doppelganger of his. Are they related, separated at birth perhaps? Adam's mother says not, but there is something unconvincing about the way she snubs his queries. Adam becomes fixed on finding answers, and eventually Anthony agrees to meet him, but will that solve anything, or just raise more questions?
Sadly that's all Enemy really does. Raise questions and provide no answers. At the end of the movie, immediately following a sequence involving a giant spider (Arachnophobes beware, Spiders of the tarantula and giant variety are featured in various ways throughout the movie), my friend and I just looked at each other and said "okaaaaaay". Now maybe we're just not intelligent to 'get' it. But I like to think of myself as reasonably intelligent, and she is of a far superior intellect to me, and a person with a knowledge of the hidden depths of the psyche. Her take on the spiders is that spiders often represent hidden traumas involving a person's mother. Wikipedia has this to say: There is a passage from Saramago's The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis,
in which he compares the fascist police and their allies to spiders:
"There is no lack of spiders' webs in the world, from some you escape,
in others you die. The fugitive will find shelter in a boardinghouse
under an assumed name, thinking he is safe, he has no idea that his
spider will be the daughter of the landlady … a dedicated nationalist
who will regenerate his heart and mind."
Feel free to make your own mind up, but I always feel that if someone walks away from a movie feeling like they didn't 'get' it, then that movie has alienated them. Which is not the point of movies. I don't like one-upmanship at the best of times, but if a film makes you feel like you're not intelligent enough to watch it, that's not good. You don't want to alienate the people who will potentially pay for what you've made.
I can only assume this is why the movie has had such a limited UK release and why until recently, I wasn't even aware it existed. Jake plays wonderfully against himself, and creates two very different people on screen, with very contrasting identities, but the film as a whole just feels like a vehicle to show him off and doesn't really have any substance. If I'm honest, I don't really see what it was about this script that appealed to him, other than the challenge of acting opposite himself. I feel like a teacher writing his report card but Jake dear, you must do better next time! 5 out of 10 (and at least 1 of those points is for Jake's magnificent beard).
Viewing Date - 10th January 2015
UK Release Date - 2nd January 2015
Cast Overview:
Jake Gyllenhaal ~ Adam / Anthony
Melanie Laurent ~ Mary
Sarah Gadon ~ Helen
Isabella Rossellini ~ Mother
Director ~ Denis Villeneuve
Writer ~ Jose Saramago (Novel) and Javier Gullon
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