Jean-Claude Van Damme was born to play the bad guy.
It was apparent in his previous villainous turns, but after Enemies Closer it is now indisputable fact that Van Damme is at his best when at odds with the hero of his films. There is certainly much to enjoy in his heroic roles, and perhaps he excels as the villain in part because those turns are overall rare within his career. But as seen especially here in his performance as Xander, a homicidal vegan drug kingpin, there is a joie de vivre that shines forth in a way we never see in him as the hero.
Every villain needs a hero, and Enemies Closer casts a somewhat unlikely hero in Tom Everett Scott. Yes, that's right, the drummer from That Thing You Do! gets pitted against an even more unlikely antagonist in Orlando Jones. Wait, what?
OK, let's start over. Scott plays Henry, an ex-Navy SEAL turned park ranger. His peaceful, largely isolated life gets interrupted by Clay (Jones) who's out to avenge the death of his little brother who died while under Henry's command as a SEAL. But before that can happen, the two have to survive the night as they're being hunted by Xander (Van Damme), who's out to reclaim the millions in heroin lost at the bottom of a lake smack dab in the middle of Henry's park.
This is, ostensibly, Henry's movie since it's his survival we're intended to care about. He's a largely static character, though, with no real arc (intended or implied) and the movie literally smash-cuts to the credits before we even get any kind of real closure to the evolution of his relationship with Clay. To Scott's credit, he could probably pull off the ex-SEAL riff convincingly enough in a movie with a better script for that sort of thing, but here he's about as white bread as you're likely expecting him to be. Jones fares a little better since Clay is the one pushing forward with a glaring, sweaty intensity and a genuine bone to pick. He makes the best of what he's given but one gets the sense that screenwriters Eric and James Bromberg, and by extension director Peter Hyams, became far more enamored of Xander as things went on.
And why not? This is a character that could have fit into any variation of a by-the-numbers Bad Guy Boss template. Instead, what we're given is a deeply weird (both on the page and on-screen) and eccentric villain who mostly just wants his drugs back. Sure he still kills people without hesitation, but Xander at least attempts to avoid spilling blood, if things would only go according to plan. He truly cares for the natural world and we actually get a bit of backstory to explain just why he's gone vegan. It's via a monologue that sounds at least half-improvised by Van Damme, but it manages to humanize this otherwise fairly cartoonish baddie. All for the love of a goose, but so it goes.
What makes his turn as Xander so memorable and so delightful is that he's being let off the chain. You could say he's unhinged, but that would imply the existence of a hinge from which to be released from. It very much feels like Van Damme told Hyams that he wanted to play the part by throwing in a bit of Frank Gorshin or Cesar Romero from the 1966 Batman TV show. There's a look Xander gives right as he makes his exit from the film that feels pure Romero.
Whatever his inspiration, Van Damme is clearly having an absolute ball here, visibly relishing every weirdo moment he gets. You'll not find a funnier, weirder moment from him in his entire filmography thus far than when he's sweet-talking a wild strawberry he's about to eat.
Were I tasked with ranking Van Damme's villainous roles, this would almost certainly be at the top. Xander's funny, he's dangerous, he's unapologetically weird. His turns in Replicant or Expendables 2 may be more eeeeeevil, but Xander feels like an actual character with more than just malicious intent coursing through his veins. The movie surrounding Xander may not rise to his heights, but that's a tall order. But regardless of whatever stock issues I may hold with it, Enemies Closer is still a fun time and more than worth checking out to see how Edith Piaf turned JCVD heel.
