Last week, I went to see the movie “Enemy” at the Rainbow Market Square Cinemas (across from St. Lawrence Market).
When I was in the Market about a week prior, a clerk at one of the booths asked me if I was in Yorkville the previous day. When I said no, he said “well, you have a doppelganger in the city then.”
I didn’t read a plot synopsis or any reviews of the movie before we went, so I had no idea what I was in for.
What I was in for was an extremely strange riddle of a movie featuring a doppelganger of the main character that may or may not exist only in his mind.
The movie was filmed in Toronto. Lots of movies are filmed in Toronto, but not very many of those are also SET in Toronto. This one is, and goes much further than just featuring the CN Tower and the Toronto skyline. The 504 King streetcar and its spider-web like electric lines are featured in one scene,
…and the main character rents movies from Queen West Video in another.
The protagonist’s girlfriend is seen behind the glass sitting at a desk at 138 Adelaide Street West, and the protagonist’s “double” – whom you could call the antagonist (or is it really him – living a double life…?) is shown in an apartment building at Rathburn Road…
…which is across from the “Absolute Towers” in Mississauga, a strange feat of engineering in themselves.
The movie sees Toronto as a hazy, smog-ridden maze of skyscrapers, concrete, and glass that causes individuals to lose their sense of self.
Monotony and endless repetition, combined with a life lived in concrete thirty floors above the ground, can make one imagine things that aren’t there, it seemed to say.
Or was it all real…??
The movie itself is a creepy thing (not in small part due to the oversized tarantulas which are seen in several scenes), and its slow pace only heightens the sense of stifling confusion. There was a lot of nervous laughter in the theatre, and applause at the end followed by lively discussion. This is the type of movie that you think and talk about for hours afterwards, trying to fit clues and pieces together.
If anyone reading has seen the movie, please post a comment to let me know what you thought of it. Perhaps we can get to the bottom of it!
“Enemy” is showing at Rainbow Market Square (across from St. Lawrence Market), the Yonge & Dundas 24, and others.
On a lighter note…this is one bonus for visiting the Rainbow Market Square Cinemas.
Photo credits:
Streetcar interior: http://movies.insing.com/movie/enemy-2014/id-a3e60000/gallery/id-003c3101/photos/
Queen West video: http://www.blogto.com/services/queen-video-bloor-toronto
Jake Gyllenhaal: http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/enemy-2014-movie-review/
Absolute Towers Mississauga: http://www.asce.org/CEmagazine/Article.aspx?id=23622322821#.U0QAq_ldWSo
Smoggy Toronto skyline: https://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/geekquinox/scientists-discover-ozone-gas-kill-140511754.html
Concrete building: http://www.thestar.com/life/2014/01/24/concrete_waiting_for_a_renaissance_in_toronto.html
Stay tuned!
New Girl in Toronto! 