Three Identical Strangers (2018)

User Review

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  IsaVsTheMovies

  8 / 10

  Documentaries are too often shunned as the boring cousins of “real” movies; this could not be farther from the truth when speaking of the stellar lineup of documentaries we are being graced with this year. Leading the pack is Morgan Neville’s heart-warming “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”, but that may soon change as now we have the most exciting work I have personally ever seen from the genre, Tim Wardle’s “Three Identical Strangers”.
  
  This documentary plays like a narrative film would — and a rather riveting one at that; it takes full advantage of the jaw-dropping twists its subject matter holds. Truthfully, the title gives away only the smallest twist in the entire story: three identical strangers Bobby, Eddie, and David find that they are triplets who were separated at birth; why? That’s where the story really gets interesting (as if it wasn’t already). It’s safe to say that most of the film’s audience has not heard of the triplets — many like myself weren’t even born when all of this went down — but everyone leaves the theater with a suddenly passionate desire to tell the story to everyone they know (my poor friends had to hear my loud refrain of “it’s so crazy!” countless times immediately after I watched this).
  
  You can’t really criticize a documentary on its story because there’s no use complaining about a true story; as a result, many hold to the doctrine that a documentary is only as strong as its subject. Granted, “Three Identical Strangers” has an already-fascinating premise, but massive credit is due to director Tim Wardle as well, who handles it in an expert way. The plot twists came with the story, but it was his job to create a film that would transmit the impact of hearing the shocking news for the first time. His technique is masterful. He tells the story chronologically and coherently, sometimes actually going back to previously shown footage once a new development arises so that the viewer can read their newfound knowledge into images they had seen beforehand. It’s the film equivalent of doing a double take. From slowly revealing the first photo we see of the triplets together to hearing experts give their first-hand witness, what the doc does best is inject us with the thrill of discovery — it’s the perfect form for such an unbelievable tale.
  
  Without spoiling anything, I can safely say that the story expands beyond the triplets; Wardle spares us unnecessary details because there is a lot to cover here. The film doesn’t just take us through the sharp left turns of the triplets’ story, but it uses what was discovered to reveal other similar phenomena and touch on certain relevant topics. Every documentary needs to show us why it matters — why we need to be interested in it; “Three Identical Strangers” does so by going much deeper than what would otherwise be borderline click-bait material. It bravely makes many deep points about family dynamics, parenting, mental health, and even the age-old nature vs. nurture debate.
  
  Despite all its interesting ups and downs, the film ends with a rather cheeky attempt to thrill the audience; however, there is no denying that the fight for this year’s Best Documentary Oscar just got way more interesting. It’ll be one for the books even just with the top candidates so far: Mister Rogers vs. the Triplets. But, I wouldn’t be surprised if this magnificent documentary trend continues and the race quickly becomes too close to call.

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