i agree with most everything in this article & found much of it to be very insightful. thanks to danielito i now know that the car accident was indeed the genesis of adam/anthony's divergent mental condition, & everything that surrounded it presumably was a kind of defense-mechanism.
but i think there is one key element that was overlooked which could possibly clarify the explanation of this film even further:
Adam: “Now there is a interesting observation, A creative act of memory, to remember something, to remember someone…(inaudible)…it’s always coloured by emotions”
it is these emotions which effectively blur the lines between what you want to see, & what you are seeing.
as danielito's blog states, the director himself confirmed that we are watching the events of the film from the perspective of adam/anthony's subconscious mind, so what if this means that some of the key events & people in the film are actually mere figments of his imagination?
i think that both sides of his split-personality are living out their own individual fantasies, which on some level are interconnected with each other.
maybe this is what the story is really about; his dual-personality condition, coupled with his altered state of reality, on both sides of the fence, feeding each other. one personality's delusions supports the other side's delusions, & vice versa.
consider, for example, the colleague who recommends the movie 'where there's a will there's a way'
i think that colleague has to be an imaginary character, as it would be one hell of a coincidence for this random person, out of the blue, to; 1) randomly change the subject to 'movies'.. & 2) in the next moment just happen to suggest one of the three movies that adam/anthony has a tiny acting role in (i.e. his entire acting filmography)
for all of that to be just a 'happy accident' would be way too contrived (& stupid) to fit in with the rest of the film, because, as the article points out, this is a movie where there are no silly plot mistakes - every scene & every line of dialogue has a purposeful intent. like kubrick's or nolan's films.
in that same vein i think that the classroom lectures were partially imaginary; only the second one we see, where anthony is hopelessly lecturing like a fish out of water struggling to find the right words, was the true reality. the first one, where he nails it just right, was his altered fantasy of how he
wanted it to be. he is 'correcting' the mistakes from his memory. by doing so, he gets a second take at life.
remember, he is an actor first, & a professor second - think of the scene where he practices confronting himself in the mirror so he can get the perfect acting performance. in his mind he sees himself as someone who could be anything he wants - even a college professor. but at his core he is really just an actor. he lives with this deep need or desire, subconsciously, to reassure himself that he is giving a star-quality 'performance'
i'm not any psychotherapist, but i think that this type of psychosis must be somewhat common, where people (say, with o.c.d for example,) feel the need to affirm their performance in life & to justify their actions.
the extreme differences between his two personalities are a bit like jack & tyler in 'fight club' - one personality is practical & self-protective, while the other one is more exciting to be around. actually, the third act of fight club, (where tyler's dialogue explains everything) is quite similar to adam/anthonys' revelations in 'enemy'.. one fundamental difference between these two films is that fight club is shown in chronological order, starting at the very early stages of the main character's psychological condition, & continuing until we reach the breathtaking climax (!)
fight club spoilers..
"you were looking for a way to change your life. you could not do this on your own. all the ways you wish you could be, that's me. i look like you wanna look, i f_ck the way you wanna f_ck, i'm smart, capable, & most importantly i'm free in all the ways that you are not..
"people do it every day. they talk to themselves. they see themselves as they'd like to be. but they didn't have the courage you had, to just run with it..
"naturally you're still wrestling with it, so sometimes, you're still you..other times you imagine yourself watching me, but little by little, you're just letting yourself become.. tyler durden!"
the elevator scene with the doorman, toward the end, was really the first time i was tipped off that he was in fact hallucinating. the way it was presented - the ambient noises disappear & only the close-up sound of their voices are audible. it was very dream-like. sort of like that scene in 'videodrome' where brian o'blivion talks directly to max thru the t.v.
i also believe the sex party scene is a total fantasy. it's just adam's mind's abstract representation of the torrid extramarital affair he is having while spending time as anthony, his other-self.
the spiders are exactly as you said. the woman kills one at the sex party to show how the act of indiscretion is breaking the spell that adam's wife has placed on him. anthony doesn't see the spider until the final scene, when, of course, by this time he is realizing the full reality of his dual-personality condition, how he's now caught in the web of not one but two women, represented here by one giant spider.
anyway that's my take on it. if you follow that logic, it should be pretty straightforward to distinguish between the other reality & hallucinatory parts of the movie. (the spiders, the sex party, etc.)
one final note about the scenes i've mentioned, with the doorman & the co-worker moviebuff guy: do those scenes remind anyone of kubrick's 'the shining' where jack is talking to lloyd the bartender & grady the butler?
by the way, i also recommend the video 'room 237' a superb analysis of the shining, if you like metaphors, holy sh:t.
(sic)
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