the movie Enemy - WTF?

CanonDjango

CanonDjango

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Contains spoilers!!!!!

has anyone seen this film with Jake Gylenhaal?

I watched this film last night and the ending had me asking WTF.

I've tried to read some interpretations on the web and none of them make any sense to me. Has anyone seen it and understood it so that i can ask some questions and try and understand it
 
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Nope! Just dowloaded and watched Agree entirely WTF?
Left me completely baffled almost as much as Six Characters In Search of An Author a play I watched live 30 years agoand sttill don't know why.

Makes Kafka look simple
 
I've just now read the plot of the film and even I thought WTF?
 
ChasG said:
Nope! Just dowloaded and watched Agree entirely WTF?
Left me completely baffled almost as much as Six Characters In Search of An Author a play I watched live 30 years agoand sttill don't know why.

Makes Kafka look simple
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I was expecting it to turn out a bit like fight club and the guy was a schizophrenic. Was looking forward to that realisation.

Then the tarantula. I mean wtf.
 
It was totally weird and I was not overly impressed with the acting. The spider at the end must, I guess, relate to the early scene with the stilletto and the naked spider faced woman walking on the ceiling.

As I was expecting to discuss this I watched it carefully but believe I just wasted 90 minutes of my life.

ChasG
 
SPOILER!!!!!!

Here is my take on it.. Even if you look at the poster you can see the city nested in the top of his head. Taking that into account I see the whole film as a metaphor.

There is only one guy, not two, the film deals with his two conflicting sides. On the one side he is a maried man and the other he cheats on his wife with his girlfriend.

The start of the film shows him in a room with a very gritty atmosphere where a masturbating woman later attempts to step on a spider. The naked masturbating woman portrays the unfaithful side that is trying to eliminate the married life/wife which is portraid as the spider.

The whole film shows these two sides confronting one another up untill the point were the unfaithful side gets eliminated in the car crash. However, the faithful side will always be tested and this can be seen at the end of the film where he opens the envelope. He opens it and afterwards enters the living room where he is once again greated by a spider, now very unsettled! This is the faithful side already fighting back..

This is how I see it anyway.. ;)
 
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So are you saying that he was living both lives and the women in his life etc didn't know. Like he was leading a double life?
 
CanonDjango said:
So are you saying that he was living both lives and the women in his life etc didn't know. Like he was leading a double life?
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I'm saying it doesn't matter if they knew, everything you see in the film is metaphorical to the viewer.. But for the sake of answering the question, the wife knew something was out of place when she followed him that day and sat with the "other guy" she believed it was actually him, that's why she confronted him at home..
 
Skipped reading comments as not to spoil it for myself.....but is it worth watching despite the WTF ending?
 
For me it was absolutely worth watching, but not part of my long term collection..
 
Here is my take on it.. Even if you look at the poster you can see the city nested in the top of his head. Missed that Taking that into account I see the whole film as a metaphor.

There is only one guy, not two, the film deals with his two conflicting sides. On the one side he is a maried man and the other he cheats on his wife with his girlfriend. I am confused as to whether he cheated as I can't recall if there was a mention of a wife when he was with the girlfiriend. She was appalled when she saw the ring mark!

The start of the film shows him in a room with a very gritty atmosphere where a masturbating woman later attempts to step on a spider. The naked masturbating woman portrays the unfaithful side that is trying to eliminate the married life/wife which is portraid as the spider.

The whole film shows these two sides confronting one another up untill the point were the unfaithful side gets eliminated in the car crash. However, the faithful side will always be tested and this can be seen at the end of the film where he opens the envelope. He opens it and afterwards enters the living room where he is once again greated by a spider, now very unsettled! This is the faithful side already fighting back..
I can now understand why I am not a psychologist

Personally I would not waste any more time on it but admire the cinematography technique of being almost sepia
 
One to wait until it's 3 quid in Tesco then?
 
keenan said:
I'm saying it doesn't matter if they knew, everything you see in the film is metaphorical to the viewer.. But for the sake of answering the question, the wife knew something was out of place when she followed him that day and sat with the "other guy" she believed it was actually him, that's why she confronted him at home..
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So how do you explain the ring mark?
 
keenan said:
You mean on his finger? That's where he wears his wedding ring... ;)
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his girlfriend freaked out because she could see the other guys ring mark on his finger. Clearly then her boyfriend didn't wear a ring to leave a mark. So if they were the same person how come one had a wedding ring mark and the other didn't?
 
My point entirely
 
CanonDjango said:
his girlfriend freaked out because she could see the other guys ring mark on his finger. Clearly then her boyfriend didn't wear a ring to leave a mark. So if they were the same person how come one had a wedding ring mark and the other didn't?
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I know what you're saying and with movies like this there is only the director that knows the real story of meaning. If I have to try and fit it into my take on things it would be as follows...

The ring mark was never visable to the girlfriend because there was never any kind of conflict between these two sides. Now that the "married" side is trying to eliminate the "unfaitful" side you can see it presenting itself in every way shape and form, hence the wedding ring mark being visable to the girlfriend..

Hope that gives it some sort of explination.
 
keenan said:
SPOILER!!!!!!

Here is my take on it.. Even if you look at the poster you can see the city nested in the top of his head. Taking that into account I see the whole film as a metaphor.

There is only one guy, not two, the film deals with his two conflicting sides. On the one side he is a maried man and the other he cheats on his wife with his girlfriend.

The start of the film shows him in a room with a very gritty atmosphere where a masturbating woman later attempts to step on a spider. The naked masturbating woman portrays the unfaithful side that is trying to eliminate the married life/wife which is portraid as the spider.

The whole film shows these two sides confronting one another up untill the point were the unfaithful side gets eliminated in the car crash. However, the faithful side will always be tested and this can be seen at the end of the film where he opens the envelope. He opens it and afterwards enters the living room where he is once again greated by a spider, now very unsettled! This is the faithful side already fighting back..

This is how I see it anyway.. ;)
Click to expand...
Other than the naked masturbating woman I don't see a lot to interest me here ;)

Steve
 
keenan said:
I know what you're saying and with movies like this there is only the director that knows the real story of meaning. If I have to try and fit it into my take on things it would be as follows...

The ring mark was never visable to the girlfriend because there was never any kind of conflict between these two sides. Now that the "married" side is trying to eliminate the "unfaitful" side you can see it presenting itself in every way shape and form, hence the wedding ring mark being visable to the girlfriend..

Hope that gives it some sort of explination.
Click to expand...

It sounds more like just trying to adjust holes in the story to fit an explanation you have formed. Rather than the story giving you an explanation.

But I appreciate your suggested interpretation.
 
Ok, after a bit of googling I have found this... have a look, it's pretty much a teardown of the entire film with quotes from the director...

 
Ok thanks I'll take a look at that,

I was going back through a few scenes of the movie this morning and there is definitely a ring on the married guy and no ring or ring mark on the other guy.

Will have a look through that video
 
CanonDjango said:
Ok thanks I'll take a look at that,

I was going back through a few scenes of the movie this morning and there is definitely a ring on the married guy and no ring or ring mark on the other guy.

Will have a look through that video
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Yes, that is the intention of the director to underline the distinction between the two sides of Jake's character.. The reason for the ring mark being visible in that particular scene is to set off the chain of events that would eliminate the unfaithful side. This is also highlighted in the video in my previous post from 15:50.
 
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ok i watched that video and it was a great help explaining the plot. I can understand almost all of it now.

But there is still one thing that doesn't make sense.

In the video he is explaining that the next morning when he gets the key he decides he is going to go back to the sex show and turns off the radio, the actor jake is gone. So this scene is real life - rather than his subconscious on a dream. So how the hell can his wife turn into a massive spider in real life - that doesn't make any sense.

I like the movie more now that I understand it, but I think that spider at the end was just a stupid way to end the movie.
 
She's not really turning into a spider!! ;) It's all metaphorical man, she's only turning into a spider in his subconscious because that's what married life is to him. It's like being trapped and stuck in a spiderweb!

He asks her if she has plans for later that night and she goes silent. He asked because he is once again tempted to go to the club and that's why she becomes a spider, because now once again he is trapped in the web of married life...

There is only one dream in the whole movie, that is the dream he had about the woman with a spiders head. Every time they show the actor it's part of the "negative" side and that is pretty much all in his subconscious! At the end of the movie the "negative" side returns and once again you see the subconscious at work.

There are no real spiders in the movie, not even fake ones, just metaphorical ones manifested in his subconscious!

And.... no he doesn't really see her as a spider, it's just the way they director chose to portray Jakes subconscious.. You can gather this from his facial expression when he sees the "spider". He's not fearing for his life of frightened in any way, instead he seems a bit dissapointed as he exhales and clearly thinks "well, that's a no then..."
 
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keenan said:
She's not really turning into a spider!! ;) It's all metaphorical man, she's only turning into a spider in his subconscious because that's what married life is to him. It's like being trapped and stuck in a spiderweb!

He asks her if she has plans for later that night and she goes silent. He asked because he is once again tempted to go to the club and that's why she becomes a spider, because now once again he is trapped in the web of married life...

There is only one dream in the whole movie, that is the dream he had about the woman with a spiders head. Every time they show the actor it's part of the "negative" side and that is pretty much all in his subconscious! At the end of the movie the "negative" side returns and once again you see the subconscious at work.

There are no real spiders in the movie, not even fake ones, just metaphorical ones manifested in his subconscious!

And.... no he doesn't really see her as a spider, it's just the way they director chose to portray Jakes subconscious.. You can gather this from his facial expression when he sees the "spider". He's not fearing for his life of frightened in any way, instead he seems a bit dissapointed as he exhales and clearly thinks "well, that's a no then..."
Click to expand...

That's not how that video described it. The last scene is actual life, not a subconscious or dream etc.
 
CanonDjango said:
That's not how that video described it. The last scene is actual life, not a subconscious or dream etc.
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So the video says his wife turns into a real spider? I better keep a close eye on my wife from now on...

The whole movie is actual life and subconscious all in one, there are no sign or captions to guide the viewer in the form of "actual life on" or "actual life off" or "dream". You need to take from the movie what you feel is right. If you don't feel right about something then chances are you'll need to dig a bit deeper.. ;)
 
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keenan said:
So the video says his wife turns into a real spider? I better keep a close eye on my wife from now on...

The whole movie is actual life and subconscious all in one, there are no sign or captions to guide the viewer in the form of "actual life on" or "actual life off" or "dream". You need to take from the movie what you feel is right. If you don't feel right about something then chances are you'll need to dig a bit deeper.. ;)
Click to expand...

No the video doesn't say the wife turns into a real spider. The video indicates that last scene is real life. How can it be real life if his wife turns into a spider. That's what I mean.

I think the rest of the movie is pretty good now that I can make sense of it. But that ending is just BS.
 
Like I said, the whole movie is real life from the teachers perspective, but throughout the movie you also see the subconscious at work. The same thing counts for the ending as well!
 
I am sorry but I think I must be one of the men in the opening sequence.

I really don't have the patience to spend ninety minutes watching a film and then days working out what it was supposed to mean.
 
i enjoy spending the time thinking about it and working it out, a movie that makes you think can be enjoyable too
 
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