Mindjob Movie A Perfect Enemy Recommendation. A Perfect Enemy was a serendipitous find. If you know THiNC. at all… like any, you know that we cater to indie mindjob movies of various shapes, sizes, and types. But one thing is for sure, the more mindjobby they are, the happier we are here. And I’m always searching for crazy flicks in pretty much any and every way that I can. Whether it’s through your comments here on the blog, on the Patreon conversations, in the discord chats, by scouring independent movie rags, or anything in between. But this time? I flipped open Fandango for some reason – and there was A Perfect Enemy. But – it’s like an angel brought it to me out of the digital divide. Why? Because it’s not playing in theaters. At least, not anywhere near me it isn’t. Regardless, I was intrigued by the title… “A Perfect Enemy”……. who would that be? Hrmmm. And then I found a way to watch it over on Google Play… and that was when I realized who the perfect enemy really was!
Here’s a trailer that I decidedly do NOT want you to watch. Instead, go pay your $6 bucks, and watch it. Take the leap. And then join me in discussing the movie below. But watch out! The rest of the this will be spoiler central.
A Perfect Enemy Walkthrough
Again – last warning. This will be an in-depth walkthrough of the brilliant European film A Perfect Enemy. You will ruin one of the true possible joys for yourself if you keep reading. I mean it…
Jeremiasz Angust is a brilliant architect. Come on – Angust? Angst? It’s fantastic! He spent the early years of his career design architectures for the upper 1%. But one day, after a “personal trauma,” he decides that he is going to spend the rest of his career building architecture to help the rest of the world and people. Architecture that heals instead of destroys.
One day, as Jeremiasz is leaving a conference where he had just given a talk, he is interrupted by Texel Textor, a young woman in her early twenties, who asked for a ride to the airport. “Excuse me, are you going to the airport?” And thus begins the most important personal interaction Jeremiasz will ever have. It’s as if you took the movie, Before Sunrise, and made it a hostile interaction as opposed to a flirtatious encounter. After waylaying Jeremiasz, and keeping him from making his flight, Texel and Jeremiasz meet back up in the airport lounge. And Texel begins telling her story to him. She begins with disgusting stories about her mobile home, and disgusting anecdotes about making cat food – and then eating it.
And as the stories are happening – we watch as the airport model changes. We see blood splatterings here and there throughout the model. We see the model’s people move to this and that location, all in correspondence with Texel and Jeremiasz, as they dance their own peculiar dance.
Texel – “When I ate the cat food, I never tasted something so good. An inner enemy a thousand times more powerful than God.”
Jeremiasz – “I don’t believe in God.”
Texel – “You are right, proof of God’s existence is difficult. But proof of an enemy within is palpable. It crosses your path every day and destroys everything worthwhile.”
And as Texel continues telling her story, she tells of using a voodoo doll of sorts to kill her best friend. Her too-perfect, best friend. She was powerful! Her hate was perfect in its power. Jeremiasz doesn’t believe a word of it. But then Texel tells her next story about the second person she killed in her life. The story starts in a cemetery when she sees the most perfect woman she’s ever seen before. At first, the woman ignores Texel and Texel’s advances. So the next thing she does is hit the woman over the head with a rock. Hauling the woman’s body into one of the tombs, she marvels at the woman’s beauty. Startled by other people in the cemetery, Texel hides. But then the woman wakes, and flees from Texel. And for the next two solid years, Texel searches all of Paris for the most perfect woman she has ever seen.
After searching for two solid years, Texel accidentally stumbles upon her all over again. But this time the woman does not recognize her at all. Instead she confuses Texel with someone from work or somewhere else. And the woman, being kind, invites Texel over for coffee. And over coffee, the woman states that living in Paris the last seven years has made her feel like she has Stockholm syndrome. At that Texel laughs and laughs maniacally… just like she did while in the cemetery two years prior. Realization dawns. The woman understands that this was her attacker and that she is in grave danger. Texel though, gives the woman a knife, and tells her to kill Texel.
Texel – “Tell me your name and then kill me.”
Woman – “Kill yourself.”
Texel – “I don’t want to die, I need you to kill me in order for the story to have a proper ending.”
But in the struggle of it all, Texel turns the knife on the woman and kills her. And she tells Jeremiasz, “And I must have committed the perfect crime, because I’m still free.” Texel didn’t know the name of the woman – but there it was, on the back of the photo frame… “For Isabelle, with all my love, Jeremi.” So, stop just for a second my intrepid reader. You understand what is happening here, right? Texel is the murderer of Jeremiasz’s missing wife. Right? Or maybe not. At this point, this movie is zigging and zagging and who knows which direction it will take us in the end.
Now, Jeremiasz is listening to this story, and is completely baffled by the details and the twists and turns of its particular specifics. And this time, when Texel asks Jeremiasz to tell the story of his own personal trauma, he obliges. And basically, Isabelle was distancing herself, leaving him. She wanted her space. And after an argument, he attempts to get back in with her by bringing flowers. But when he does, he notices that she recently purchased a ticket to leave him the next day. Textel interjects, “And why exactly would Isabelle abandon your perfectino? You couldn’t bring yourself to even ask about the plane tickets. She rejected you.” Well, that was the last I ever saw of her.
But we noticed that she left behind a positive pregnancy test. So OBVIOUSLY Texel is the daughter!! Jeremiasz’s girlfriend obviously fled, had his child… and here she is, chasing him down! Or not. “In a certain way, yes, you are right, I am your daughter!” But lower voice, because you are on the plane… whiplash… he’s actually on the plane! And now we know that Jeremiasz isn’t all there mentally. Like, not at all – something is seriously wrong with this particular bloke. He’s jumping in time and space… he’s obviously seeing things. What is happening here?
After Jeremiasz goes into the bathroom to splash water on his face (Pro-tip? Never do that. That water will burn your skin off.) Texel joins him there. Like, through the door. But he’s remembering. He’s remembering her leaving him. He’s remembering just how angry it made him. He remembers that he couldn’t bear to let her go. And so he stabbed her. He stabbed her, and carried her body to the construction site of the airport, and threw her body down into the wet setting foundation. And voila? It was the perfect murder. Except for the fact that he didn’t notice the positive pregnancy test until after he came home. And it was Texel… in his mind… that was born from the guilt, and anguish of it all. No? And it was Texel that was determined to kill him.
Discrepancies and Complications With A Perfect Enemy
Will get to that ending in a minute. I have to call a time out though. At this point – everyone knows what is happening. Jeremiasz is Texel. Texel is Jeremiasz. Right? Everything we saw Texel do was a re-envisioning of what Jeremiasz did. Hold on though. The Texel version of events shows Texel stalking Isabelle in the cemetery. And we know that this is how Jeremiasz originally met Isabelle – and he even wanted to rape her there. He admitted as much. So we know he probably also hit her with a rock and knocked her out. She then also got away. We can also surmise that Jeremiasz was the one that hunted Isabelle down over the course of two years through Paris.
Something doesn’t add up for me though. In Texel’s version of events, she was invited over to Isabelle’s home for coffee because Isabelle didn’t recognize her. Right? But when we first see Jeremiasz’s first flashback to Isabelle, they are moving in together. What am I missing? Then Jeremiasz and Isabelle have an argument and Jeremiasz storms out, only to come back later (weeks?) with flowers. So which version of events are right? Was Jeremiasz just helping Isabelle move, and they weren’t moving in together? Did Texel’s version compression things together? They don’t align, even a little bit. Can anyone in the comments give us a timeline that might rectify these two different versions? I’m fine just explaining Jeremiasz as a homicidal (obviously) maniac with myopic visions of grandeur and he has literally no idea what truth even smells like.
Ending of A Perfect Enemy Explained
I LOVE THIS ENDING. When we left Texel and Jeremiasz fighting to the death in the bathroom of the airplane, we watched as Texel shoved Jeremiasz under the oozing cement that was coming in under the bathroom door. CEMENT? On an airplane?!?? (I’m sorry, we are going to have to take just a super quick moment out for the slower among us. Bear with me.) Texel is in Jeremiasz head. The grave site for his murdered wife? In his head. The wet cement, pouring in under the door of the airplane bathroom, is in his head. The struggle between Texel and Jeremiasz is 100% an allegory for the struggle between good and evil in Jeremiasz’s mind. Okay? Everyone with us now? Great.
So it is exhilarating to see Texel, the fictional remnant of Isabelle, rise up in Jeremiasz’s subconscious (liminal consciousness? “I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you just be whelmed?” “You can in Europe I think?”) and attack him. Not only attack him, but to also shove him completely under the flowing cement. YES! Goodness wins! Jeremiasz dead! And now the good within Jeremiasz will march himself to the nearest police station and admit to his crimes against his wife. He’ll admit his perfect crime and will serve his time for the brutal murder of Isabelle.
Oh, but wait – here comes Jeremiasz out of the cement? And now it’s Texel that is going under? No! What is happening? Just like that, Jeremiasz dunks Texel under the cement, and drowns her completely under the sludge, just like he did to Isabelle over 20 years ago.
What is interesting about this encounter on the plane, the taxi and in the concourse between Texel and Jeremiasz is that this probably isn’t the first encounter that he has had with Texel. Well, maybe not Texel. But maybe his name was Malthe? Or Bram, or Dehaan, or Hendrika… you get the idea. We are legion. Maybe these encounters happen any time he comes through the airport? Or another place that is deeply important to Isabelle? Or the cemetery. That is the interesting thing about the mind and about evil. No? It is perfidious… and unrelenting… this judging and willful thing, the mind.
The reason I love the ending so much is because it didn’t give the viewer the ending they were hoping for. AND TEXEL FOR THE WIN! No. That isn’t how the mind works. Sure, Jeremiasz was able to beat Texel back. This time. But it’s apparent that this contest has been going on for the past 20 years. I literally cannot imagine the horror that is a human mind after a pervasive evil like murdering someone. It’d be interesting to read more about murderers who have been at large for years and then eventually, out of the blue, just turn themselves in. Hrmm. (Interesting.) Which, is my thought on where this whole thing will eventually go. But we’ll have to wait until I interview Kike Maíllo, who was kind enough to accept my interview request. We shall see.
Anyway, what did you think of the movie? I went into it completely blind. No one told me about it. No one tipped me to it. So I didn’t know that it was a mindjob going in. I wasn’t aware of the twists and turns that were coming. Which, I believe made it all the better. Regardless, I enjoyed it quite a lot. What did you think of it?
Edited by: CY