Three Identical Strangers
First screened in July 2018
Director: Tim Wardle. Documentary about three triplets separated at birth and adopted by different families, only to learn much later about their identical siblings—and why they had been separated. Interview subjects include Robert Shafran and David Kellman. Twitter Capsule:
Critiques science's selective managing of information yet practices dramatic versions of the same thing.
VOR:③
Several issues worth serious, complicated debate arise through this story. The movie flattens several of them, but they're still provocative.
Three Identical Strangers segues across its runtime from a stranger-than-fiction tale its subjects can't wait to share to a narrative full of raw wounds and sore spots they'd rather not explore. It's not the place of a film critic to adjudicate how people should feel about the most sensational events of their own lives or where they must draw the line between privacy and access. It is, however, fair to point out that Three Identical Strangers remains limited as a documentary by how the titular brothers and, worse, the filmmakers elect to shape and proscribe the borders around this story. Grade:C+
