A Perfect Enemy – Deeply Unpleasant For All The Wrong Reasons

For a relatively short feature film, A Perfect Enemy packs a lot into its running time. Initially, it appears to be a story about a mischievous youngster engaging in a battle of wills. When it begins to spiral out of control and becomes something more, it can be difficult to get on its wavelength. Wanting to be campy and self consciously ridiculous early on, it then takes a turn towards being extremely serious to the point where it’s hard to get an accurate read on it. The film just won’t settle on a tone and let us enjoy the scenes that ask viewers to question whether one can really trust architects. 

A Perfect Enemy takes many twists and turns but the setup is fairly simple. Internationally renowned architect Jeremiasz Angust (Kot) is preparing to fly out of Paris when he encounters the unusual Tessel Textor (Strates). She loves to remind him that she is Dutch and proceeds to tell him all about her difficult childhood. His conversations with her prevent him from reaching the airport on time and he is stuck in the waiting lounge with her. She torments him by continuing to tell him about her past and he is disturbed by the fact that she claims to have killed multiple people. He desperately tries to get away from her but he is also intrigued by the stories that she tells. She seems to be implying that they are similar in many ways and he bristles against this notion. They are locked in an intense, complicated debate over their respective views on morality and punishment. As the debate goes on, Angust begins to question whether he is going crazy and a couple of plot twists alter our perception of the world that he exists in. 

The film is essentially a chamber piece at points, despite the extended flashback scenes that take us away from the airport where most of the conversations take place. The film largely consists of scenes in which Kot and Strates go head to head, with both of them becoming increasingly worked up and frustrated. The dialogue is written in such a grandiloquent, theatrical style that the director can’t really shift the focus off of the actors when they deliver their lines. He has to come up with about ten different ways to present Kot in profile as he grimaces before barking out some cruel rebuke. He never goes for an extreme close-up which was commendable despite too many medium shots that aimed to capture the business class lounge as much as they picked up on the nuances of Kot’s facial expressions. The camerawork needed to be more lively as the actors tried to overcompensate for the limitations that had been placed upon them. Strates does a lot of standing up and sitting down and her movements begin to feel like desperate attempts to distract from the repetitive dialogue that she is reciting. 

There are also points where the wildness of the story just becomes too much to take. The film is thoroughly unconvincing at every turn and, because it is impossible to hold onto anything, it’s easy to not care. As with most mysteries, you find yourself waiting for the moment where one of the main characters uses exposition to explain absolutely everything that just happened up until the usual frustratingly neat little moment where all of the loose ends are tied up. There is one of those sequences in A Perfect Enemy and it does produce one of the most thrilling moments in the film, it is just a shame that it comes so late and has so little weight behind it. The script fails to stay once step ahead of the audience, while also providing them with enticing breadcrumbs that will let them feel as though they have the ability to solve the mystery at the center of the story. 

All in all, this was often exasperating, even when it did provide some answers, it’s tough to call it thought provoking. One can’t help but be baffled by the film’s parade of odd subplots. If the filmmakers had a better control over its tone, this could have been even nuttier than it already is. Then it might have gained the charm that it fatally lacks. 

still courtesy of Vortex Media

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Zita Short

I am passionate about screwball comedies from the 1930s and certain actresses from the Golden Age of Hollywood. I’ll aim to review new Netflix releases and write features, so expect a lot of romantic comedies and cult favourites.