Enemy (15)

BASED on the novel The Double by Nobel laureate José Saramago, Enemy is confusing, disorientating, creepy and intense but ultimately brilliant viewing.

In a nuanced performance – and perhaps one of his best – Jake Gyllenhaal plays two versions of himself whose carefully constructed lives collapse when they meet.

Gyllenhaal plays university lecturer Adam who spots his doppelganger Anthony as a bit-part actor in a film.

Adam tracks him down and, although both are alarmed and wary at first, the pair agree to meet and that is when things get really weird.

Enemy seems to be a film about desire with Adam and Anthony both wanting what the other has got.

Adam wants the excitement of Anthony's acting career and the stability of his married life with pregnant Helen (Sarah Gadon) while Anthony lusts after Adam's distant girlfriend Mary (Mélanie Laurent).

Naturally it is a film full of metaphors and Canadian director Denis Villeneuve's imagery of spiders goes along with the feeling of being trapped.

Enemy's uneasy tone and complex plot has drawn comparisons to the work of David Lynch and David Cronenberg and deservedly too.

The story, a little different from Saramago's source material, is deliberately open to all kinds of wild interpretation and it is likely to be one of those films that is analysed for years to come.

It is also a worthy follow-up for filmmaker Villeneuve after 2013's excellent Prisoners.