Enemy
A24 | Release Date: March 14, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
8
Negative:
3
Watch Now
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezSep 15, 2013
Enemy is a transfixing grand slam that certifies Villeneuve as the real deal and one of the most exciting new voices in cinema today. Read full review
90
Village VoiceMichael NordineMar 11, 2014
Denis Villeneuve's shared dream of a film takes the simple premise of a man glimpsing his doppelganger while watching a movie and mines every bit of tension and oddity from it — there's hardly a scene that doesn't exude menace. Read full review
82
Film.comDavid EhrlichSep 15, 2013
Denis Villeneuve’s Enemy might have the scariest ending of any film ever made. Read full review
80
Total FilmKevin HarleyJan 9, 2015
Gyllenhaal is engaged and engaging in Denis Villeneuve’s adventure in psychological surrealism: let’s hope they stay friends. Read full review
80
EmpireIan FreerDec 30, 2014
The doppelgänger trope may sound well worn but Enemy finds fresh, deeply unnerving ground. And Jake Gyllenhaal gives two spellbinding performances. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMar 20, 2014
Not just dark but dank, Denis Villeneuve's Enemy is a surpassingly creepy film about identity. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony LaneMar 14, 2014
Enemy may crawl and infuriate, and, boy, does Villeneuve get rid of the grin. But the film sticks with you, like a dreadful dream or a spider in the bedclothes. Shake it off, and it's still there. [17 March 2014, p.78]
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubMar 27, 2014
Enemy is what might happen if someone let Terrence Malick make a "Twilight Zone" episode, with a quick rewrite by David Cronenberg. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMar 20, 2014
This is a weird, psychological sexual thriller clearly designed to get a rise out of audiences. It’s also pretty damn engrossing. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMar 20, 2014
It's not a frenzied head-trip, the way Roman Polanski's "The Tenant" was, nor does the movie have half the energy and nightmarish allure of David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive." It's best taken, I think, as a jape and a wry male-centric fable on transgression and desire. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Geoff PevereMar 13, 2014
Shot before the Canadian director made the major-studio, suburban-vigilante drama "Prisoners," Enemy operates on a level of carefully calibrated unease, where the very elusiveness of motivation and logic is exploited for purposes of sustained cinematic disorientation. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleMar 20, 2014
Enemy may be built more on questions than answers, but in the probing it generates a satisfyingly arch hum of weirdness. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMar 13, 2014
Much of the fun in Enemy, which is tightly constructed and expertly shot, lies in Mr. Gyllenhaal’s playful and subtle performances. Read full review
70
The DissolveJordan HoffmanMar 11, 2014
For a tone poem on loneliness, fluid identity, and photogenic apartments, Enemy is the best entry in the genre since Roman Polanski’s The Tenant. And the last five minutes are just as unpredictable. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 24, 2013
Ultimately, the enigmatic surface conflict — in which a man must contend with his own carbon copy as rival — proves to be the film’s own worst enemy, for its dark, David Lynchian allure proves almost too compelling, obscuring the material’s deeper themes. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMar 21, 2014
Movies about doubles are, almost by definition, creepy, but Villeneuve, not to be outdone, piles on the weirdness. He’s big on spider imagery, but the web is flimsy. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia PuigMar 20, 2014
Gyllenhaal is excellent in the dual roles, though Laurent (Inglourious Basterds) is given too little to do to make much of an impression. Isabella Rossellini has a brief, thankless role as the mother of at least one of the two look-alikes. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireMar 14, 2014
Enemy, Villeneuve's latest, differs from the earlier works not only in being set in Canada, but also in offering a story that's ostensibly less concerned with painful real-life struggles than with dream-like subjective perplexities. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineJesse CataldoMar 10, 2014
Jake Gyllenhaal embodies the two roles with real presence, establishing Adam's sniveling wimp and Anthony's striding jerk as two believably discrete sides of the same coin. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyJan 15, 2015
Does it add up to much? Not really. Not finally. But it’s a suggestive puzzle-box of a picture, worth turning over in your palm. Read full review
60
CineVuePatrick GambleJan 8, 2015
Choosing to focus more time on the uncoordinated instinctual trends of the subconscious rather than the moralising role of the cognisant, Enemy lacks the humanity to relate to on an emotional level, ultimately tempering the brooding anxiety and distilling our intrigue into mild curiosity towards the oblique narrative rather than fostering the original menace into something more substantial. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierMar 13, 2014
It never comes to much more than an atmospheric head-scratcher. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfMar 11, 2014
All the way back to "Donnie Darko," Jake Gyllenhaal has had an inchoate sense of evolution about him, a tricky quality that better actors can’t pull off half as well. So it’s hard to say if splitting the star into two doppelgängers — Adam, a mousy college professor, and Anthony, a rising actor with a healthy ego — is the best dramatic plan. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungSep 15, 2013
More than a thriller, this adaptation of Jose Saramago’s novel The Double is an absurdist-existential mood piece – and a very dark mood it is. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayMar 20, 2014
There’s no doubt that Villeneuve can make a movie; he’s developed a strong cinematic voice. It’s tantalizing to imagine what he could do with a really fine story. Read full review
50
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreMar 18, 2014
Jake Gyllenhaal does tour de force double duty in the intimate thriller Enemy, a cryptic essay on identity. He is terrific in both guises, but he is trapped in a frustrating puzzle without a solution. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Mar 15, 2014
Enemy dives into material Villeneuve has described as “personal.” But it’s hard to see much more than platitudes in the metaphoric muddle of its plot. Read full review
30
TimeRichard CorlissMar 13, 2014
Enemy is an arid parable, in which actors are neutered, zombified; they signify themes rather than occupying personalities. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezMar 27, 2014
The movie, however, is the sort of picture in which people run around doing everything except the most logical thing to do, because that’s the only way to keep the nonsensical plot spinning. Read full review
25
New York PostLou LumenickMar 13, 2014
It doesn’t add up to much of anything exciting, even with an appearance by Isabella Rossellini (of Lynch’s “Blue Velvet’’) as the mother of one of the doubles. Read full review
More From This Movie

61 Critic Reviews

7.4 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL