Amélie Nothomb is one of the best known contemporary Belgian writers. His work does not have many film adaptations, the most recent from just a couple of years ago: ‘Cosmética del enemigo’ arrived in Spain through Filmin and now it can finally be seen openly on RTVE Play
the perfect enemy
Jeremiasz Angust is a successful architect who misses his flight when he comes across Texel Textor, a mysterious young woman who strikes up a seemingly harmless conversation with him but soon turns more and more sinister…
This adaptation of the homonymous novel by Amélie Nothomb is a co-production between Spain, France and Germany and is directed by Kike Maillo (‘Eve’). Tomasz Kot (‘Cold War’), Athena Strates (‘The Big Lie’) and martha grandson (‘Mother’) lead the cast.
‘Enemy cosmetics’ is presented to us as a enjoyable psychological thriller: From the beginning, we suspect that something bad is going to happen and that what starts out as a seemingly normal conversation with this strange stranger who takes so much confidence, will end up deriving into something dark and revealing.
In that sense, the film fulfills its purpose: stay in tension at all times and make us want to know more, despite the fact that practically all the action is reduced to a conversation between two people.
Much of the credit goes to the good chemistry between Tomasz Kot and Athena Strates, who show us that dialectical battle in which new information will be revealed to us through flashbacks.
Although the original work It’s a novel, the book of Nothomb tit gave off a very theatrical feeling by reducing all the action at an airport. The film manages to bring dynamism expanding the spaces and putting into images the different stories that Textor is telling, giving it a more cinematographic identity.
In fact, it is interesting to observe the changes between book and adaptation. Some of them give a lot of play, such as bringing the story closer to the thriller genre (while the tone of black humor predominates in the novel). Others may creak at times (the cemetery scene seems a bit strange considering how Textor’s character is in the film) but, in general, It’s an enjoyable adaptation even if you already know the twist ending..
Like in the novel, that final twist is the weakest thing ever. Quite hackneyed and unsurprising, a shame because it leaves a bittersweet taste in the mouth after a hectic hour and a half.
‘Enemy cosmetics’ is an absorbing psychological thriller that grips you from the first moment. An interesting adaptation of the work by Amélie Nothomb that lacks in its ending but, for the rest, offers a highly entertaining tour de force between the two main actors.