Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Kike Maíllo
Starring: Tomasz Kot, Athena Strates, Marta Nieto, Dominique Pinon
Much like the recent Canadian thriller
The Oak Room, Spanish director Kike Maíllo's A Perfect Enemy is
a movie in love with storytelling. Cynical viewers might say it's a little
too in love with its own story, stretching a premise that might just as
easily have worked in a short across 90 minutes. But it's the telling of
the tale here, and the various stories within its central narrative, that
keep us hooked.
A Perfect Enemy begins in the vein of
Something Wild
or After Hours, as a young blonde woman arrives like a hurricane into the ordered life
of a stuffed shirt man.
Jeremiasz Angust (Tomasz Kot) is a Polish architect in Paris to
deliver a lecture on his work and his philosophy of using his profession
to help those in the developing world. He wants to get out of the French
capital as quickly as possible, as it brings back bad memories of Isabelle
(Marta Nieto), the wife who left him soon after their marriage.
While stuck in traffic, Jeremiasz reluctantly agrees to share his cab with
Texel (Athena Strates), a rain-sodden young Dutch woman who is also
in a rush to catch a flight.
When the pair arrive at the airport, they discover they've both missed
their flights. Jeremiasz bids farewell to Texel and heads for the recently
constructed lounge, which he was himself involved in designing. A scale
model of the lounge catches his attention, as it appears to have a small
bloodstain within its glass. Much to his annoyance, Jeremiasz finds
himself harassed once again by Texel, who insists he join her at the bar.
Realising she's not going to leave him alone, he accepts her offer.
It's at this point that Texel adopts the role of sinister storyteller.
After confessing that she has killed two people in her life, she proceeds
to tell a story in three parts – the first "Disgusting", the second
"scary" and the third "ending with love."
As Texel's story develops, Jeremiasz grows increasingly uncomfortable, as
it seems this mysterious young woman may not be the stranger she pretends
to be.
Through the character of Texel, Maíllo delivers a meta examination of
storytelling and specifically the relationship between the teller and the
listener. As Texel is wont to point out, Jeremiasz is creating a version
of her story in his head that mirrors his own experiences and
preconceptions. When she mentions her childhood home, he pictures his own
childhood home, a communist tower block a million miles away from the
trailer park on the outskirts of Rotterdam where Texel's story actually
played out. When Texel mentions her one true love, Jeremiasz assumes she's
speaking of a man even though she hadn't mention any specific sex. This
idea that a story is partly created by the experiences of the listener
gradually develops in sinister fashion, as details of Jeremiasz's past are
revealed through their uncanny connections with the tale told by this
unconventional storyteller.
If at times the dialogue is a little creaky, Strates' arresting
performance goes a long way to giving it life. Like Jeremiasz, we're held
in her thrall as we try to figure out just what role she really plays in
his life. Things take a magic realist turn when figurines of Jeremiasz and
Texel appear in the miniature model of the airport lounge. A Parisian
flashback owes much to Hitchcock's Vertigo, and perhaps a little to De Palma's Obsession. Maíllo relies too heavily on dialogue to be considered in the same
realm as those most cinematic filmmakers, but his obsessions (pardon the
pun) are similar – enigmatic blonde women, stuffy male protagonists, and a
delight in stringing an audience along with a good yarn.
A Perfect Enemy is on UK/ROI Digital from July 5th.
