A Perfect Enemy is a dark psychological thriller, directed by Kike Maíllo. The film is based on a French novel, The Enemy’s Cosmetique.
A Perfect Enemy Movie Cast
- Tomasz Kot as Jeremiasz
- Athena Strates as Texel
A Perfect Enemy Movie Plot
A Perfect Enemy revolves around a renowned architect who meets a stranger and from then on, his visit to the airport takes a crazy, maniacal turn.
A Perfect Enemy Movie Review
A Perfect Enemy is gripping and engaging but not quite perfect. It’s a dark tale where memories create the entire horror of the situation. There are red flags since the very beginning, the situation, the stranger and the oddness of the atmosphere, and gradually, it keeps tipping a bigger domino piece and raises the stakes higher as it progresses.
The film isn’t longer than 1 hour 30 minutes yet there were times when parts felt grueling and really leaning on the performances, which were hit or miss for most part. That being said, there’s an ever engaging sense of mystery and build up in the story which takes advantage of the characteristics of the setting and the people themselves.
Jeremiasz (Played by Tomasz Kot) is a renowned architect who has thrived perfection all his life. His work is spread out across different ventures, one of the most prominent one being the Paris Airport where the entire story of A Perfect Enemy revolves. On his way he meets a stranger, drenched in rain and asking for a ride to the same airport. This girl he meets, Texel (Played by Athena Strates), has some shady intentions from the get go.
She has a personality wherein she would annoy Jeremiasz for hours talking about her story yet in her silence lies the most deadly sense of terror and fear. As they reach the airport, they are already too late and Jeremiasz misses his flight. And in that airport, unravels a mystery, in the form of an hour long therapy session.
Athena Strates is Haunting in the Best Way Possible
A Perfect Enemy is situated around a premise which heavily relies on the performances to extract that thrill out of it. And Athena Strates truly creates a character which is haunting even in her most innocent of smiles. The dynamic between Jeremiasz and Texel has a gradual progression from confused eerieness to pure hatred and disgust. They dwell into philosophies and judge each other’s characters through their own lenses.
What starts as a pretty easy demarcation between maniacal and sanity, gets muddled as we move ahead, because both the characters test each other’s patience and judging who is farther away from sanity gets increasingly complicated. The character study between the two frontrunners of A Perfect Enemy takes place through a series of different stories. The origin of Texel and her troubled childhood, to the ultimate heinous person that she has become and how that coincides with Jeremiasz is the essence of the movie and its truly enjoyable. It effectively tosses themes like lust and inhumane attraction through the minds of both the characters, and how each of these people perceive the concept of love is both far out and eerily similar at the same time.
The film is also beautiful to look at, in which it always has a grey hue and it never lets go of the darkness, even in its frames and colours. And like a good mystery, A Perfect Enemy comes with its share of metaphors which play an effective part in bringing the story forward until the reveal takes place. From a small model of the airport to the shattering of a mirror, the film constantly uses its environment to develop clues and tension of this encounter which ultimately explodes.
There were some hiccups I had with the way A Perfect Enemy progresses because Tomasz Kot’s performance had an immense weight and there were moments when his portrayal failed in justifying the stakes of the situation. As his character developed, he changes guises and I would have loved a more honest dark portrayal rather than something which feels like it’s only halfway there. And from the suspense aspects of the screenplay, there’s a considerable fog of predictability which dominates the movie. Maybe I have had an experience in this genre, but for me, the ending sort of gave itself away during the first 20 minutes itself. But it didn’t really made me appreciate the engaging build up any less.
A Perfect Enemy is dark, both in its aura and its visuals. Athena Strates truly makes this movie her own and it wouldn’t have felt the same without her hauntingly beautiful portrayal of a Maniacal woman. Kike Maíllo exudes finesse in his work and it is prominent in how he builds the world. If you are looking for one dark and mean mystery thriller, this will more likely than not satisfy your hunger.
The Movie Culture Synopsis
A Perfect Energy is ever enaging and hughly entertaining, and even though some performances work better than others, it does its absolute best to keep the viewer hooked throughout. Filled with crazy metaphors and environments, it is truly one dark psychological thriller.
