The sci-fi romantic drama hits Irish cinemas this Friday.
In the near future, humanity will begin moving people to orbiting space stations and other planets as the Earth undergoes catastrophic climate change. Married couple Junior and Henrietta (Paul Mescal and Saoirse Ronan) live on a rural farm in the Midwest and are approached by Terrence (Aaron Pierre), a representative of a corporation that plans to send Junior to work on an orbiting space station for two. years. As part of this plan, Terrence must stay close and watch Junior and Hen in order to help create a biomechanical copy that will stay with Hen while Junior is in space…
As enticing as the premise of a sci-fi romantic drama starring two of the hottest young stars of the time may be, Enemy exists in that state all the time. It’s almost there, but it never quite gets there. There’s an ethereal beauty in the way Garth Davis leaves the camera to linger on landscapes, on glorious decay, on quiet moments between Mescal and Ronan’s characters, but it’s all ultimately fleeting and hazy. The substance penetrates so deeply that you are left with something that is ultimately empty at its core. What’s more, there are so many unanswered questions surrounding the central concept that you’re surprised no one stopped and challenged any of them. Of course, Enemy is not so much a thoughtful, coherent sci-fi drama. It exists through vibration, meaning and texture, as well as the strength of its composition.
Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal light up the screen together, and their combined chemistry and physical dynamics are enough to push Enemy past its self-created tedium. Mescal’s performances range from violent and thunderous to vulnerable and harrowing. Ronan, meanwhile, spends much of his performance in the eyes, capturing all the hope, pain and anguish of the years wasted in a ultimately doomed relationship. Together they form the heart and soul of Enemy and are as compelling as they come. Meanwhile, Aaron Pierre plays them off with a kind of buttery charisma and balances between witness and participant in their drama while pursuing his own secret agenda.
“Enemy” looks stunning in every frame. Mátyás Erdelyi’s cinematography evokes the sickly, fleeting beauty of Terence Malick, aided by Mescal and Ronan, who conveniently stand in for Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek a la Badlands. Even when the film turns into clumsy sci-fi, there’s still a certain softness to it that helps it move along. However, despite all this and the performers, “Enemy” caves under the weight of its own pretensions. You know he’s reaching for bigger questions and themes than what’s shown on screen, like the very nature of humanity. “Enemy” juxtaposes the destruction of our planet by our own will with the relationship at the heart of the film: Ronan and Mescal’s characters sabotage their happiness but cannot help themselves.
Enemy has two compelling leads and a lot of ambition in the script, but despite its aspirations for heartfelt sci-fi, there’s a flatness somewhere that’s impossible to ignore. Not only that, but the ending is completely ruined, and for all the goodwill generated by its cast and visuals, you find yourself walking away from Enemy strangely unshaken.