Three Identical Strangers is a whirlwind of a tale, telling the true story of a set of triplets that had been separated at birth only to reunite 19 years later. The story is told through a documentary-style film, with dialogue from the triplets themselves intertwined with snippets of actors recreating scenes. While documentaries can often be boring and artistically lacking, Three Identical Strangers is one of the best films of the year due to its compelling storyline and excellent artistic choices.
Three Identical Strangers is based on the real-life story of three identical triplets; Bobby Shafran, Eddy Garland, and David Kellman. The film starts with Bobby on a stool with a picture day background set up behind him. He starts to talk about his life when he was younger. He reminisces on the beat up junk car that he would ride in, lovingly named “The Old Bitch.” With this endearing snippet of backstory, the audience is able to laugh at and familiarize themselves with Bobby, which is important to the rest of the film in that it forms an emotional connection between the characters and the viewers.
Bobby then begins to recount the story of how he found his brothers. Filming picks up the pace and reenactments of the events are layered with Bobby sitting down telling the story. The alternation between Bobby and the reenacted scene gives the audience a feeling of excitement and anticipation. This style of filming was picked very carefully, and it succeeded in eliciting the type of response that it was intended to. Bobby was mistaken for Eddy one day, and he had no idea what was going on until his confusing experiences were debunked when he ran into one of Eddy’s friends who realized that Bobby wasn’t Eddy. He asked Bobby if he was adopted. Yes. He asked Bobby when his birthday was. July 12, 1961. Then this friend told Bobby that he knew a boy named Eddy who he thought might be his twin. The two of them hopped into “The Old Bitch” and drove for two hours to Long Island in order to find Bobby’s double.
The minute the two long lost brothers met, they knew that they were one and the same. A story was sent to a newspaper about the boys’ reunion and then newspapers from all over the country began to pick up this phenomenon and plaster it on the front page. After seeing the front page of the newspaper one day, David Kellman noticed an eerie similarity between himself and the other two boys. What made him believe that he was the third brother was the similarity between all of their hands: big meaty hands were a part of each of the boys’ identities. He made a phone call and the three of them met. From that point on they were inseparable and they were filled with love for each other from the second they met even though they were just strangers.
The addition of recreated moments sparks exhilaration within the audience because the events that are being described in interviews with the brothers are occurring at a fast pace in the reenacted scenes. This tactic allowed the film to stray from the stereotypical yawn-inducing character that many documentaries have. Three Identical Strangers was not just someone sitting down telling a story about an event with a dry monotonous voice; instead, it had life and spirit in every minute. The perfect amount of humor was thrown into this film, which was made apparent by the laughter heard by the audience every so often. This film was created with the intent of bringing light to a serious situation and the effects it had on the triplets for the rest of their lives, and it did so in a manner that was clear and concise to the audience.
Three Identical Strangers is also a film filled with colorful images both visually and mentally, sparking interest within every mind watching it. This film was made to made the audience think. Three Identical Strangers could have been a blockbuster movie with a much more lighthearted mood, but instead the directors knew that it should be a documentary and that it should be a personal retelling of the story by the triplets themselves. This stylistic decision is one of the small but powerful details that made this movie a success.
These events all happened quickly and the documentary was moving fast until everything started to slow down with the mention of something much darker about the reality of the triplets. Everything came to a halt when a shocking revelation, which I will not spoil, was uncovered. There were gasps throughout the audience, and this happened on more than one occasion throughout the documentary, proving how the directors did an incredible job of pitching the story to the viewers and appealing to their emotions. At this point the film had taken on a much more frantic mood than it previously had.
An interesting factor that was explored throughout the movie was the mental health of the three triplets and other sets of separated twins that were interviewed in this movie. One set of twins that was featured in the documentary stated that they had each been diagnosed with depression during their lives. They later explained how their biological parents had health issues too.
Each of the triplets had at one point in their lives suffered from some form of health issue, at one time or the other having each been institutionalized. While they were babies, the parents of the triplets said that each of them would bang their heads against their cribs. Separation anxiety fueled these actions because the triplets were separated a few months after they were born, and in the time that they were together they developed an incredible bond as expected. What’s more is that the triplets’ family had a history of mental illness, and these ailments appeared in each of the triplets independently, cruelly proving the nature versus nurture hypothesis.
All in all, this documentary was an extremely fascinating film and one of the best of the year. The emotions, particularly the mixture of happy emotions associated with the reunion of the siblings with the desperation and sadness that surrounded their separation, were conveyed in a way that tugged at the heart of all members of the audience. The documentary also showed the desperation of the triplets and their families to find some truth to grasp onto. Perhaps most interesting and relevant was the discussion of mental health issues in this film. While informative, this aspect was not boring or overly factual in an otherwise fun movie, but rather an interesting and compelling take on the plight of these siblings. This documentary tied everything together seamlessly, providing as much detail as possible and leaving little to be questioned other than personal wonderings and thoughts.