Movie of the Week: Twinsters

Alexa: Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, and those stories are often the most fascinating. “Twinsters” is no exception. In a nutshell, Anais Bordier, a French fashion student studying in London, sees a YouTube video of actress Samantha Futerman and she’s struck by their uncanny resemblance. When Anais finds out they share the same birthday, she contacts Samantha on Facebook and learns they were also born in the same city in South Korea and adopted as infants. Being in the film industry, Samantha naturally decides to document the experience shortly after she and Anais first connect - and it’s a strange and beautiful journey. “Twinsters” is a low budget, unpolished documentary, but that’s a huge part of its charm. It only enhances the deeply personal nature of the story. You can’t help but feel like you’re literally right there next to them as they discover their roots. The split-screen Skype conversations and text message bubbles are a nice touch for a tale so driven by technology - without which Samantha and Anais likely never would have found each other - and effectively conveys the intimate connection the long-lost sisters quickly establish. They’re both such engaging personalities, and it’s an absolute delight to watch them evolve from tentative to inseparable. Their return to South Korea in the third act is a particularly emotional coda to the first chapter of their reunion. “Twinsters” is a fun ride, and an equally poignant reflection on the meaning of family.

Joel: It’s really kind of frustrating when you are watching a movie, that you know is good, and you can tell it’s going to be critically acclaimed, and you can even see why it’s critically acclaimed, but for whatever reason it’s just not clicking for you. It’s even worse when the movie in question is a documentary because it’s not like there was a bad storytelling decision that you can point to and take issue with. The movie is literally documenting what really happened.

Unfortunately, I found myself in that boat with this movie. The story that Twinsters is telling is a fascinating story, but I’m not sure it’s a feature length story. I think this could have worked better as an extended short, maybe something closer to 40 minutes than 90. The problem is that there’s not a whole lot to the story that you don’t get from the description of the movie. Maybe there was supposed to be more drama surrounding the “are they/aren’t they” question about the two women being twins, but it says in the description on Netflix that they’re twins, so, for the audience at least, it’s not so much a mystery as a question you already know the answer and you’re just waiting for the teacher to tell the rest of the class.

There were several parts that I did like. I enjoyed both the first scene of the twins talking on skype, and I liked the neat effect of fast forwarding through time to show how long their conversation was and how their demeanors changed over the conversation. I also really liked the first meeting scene. It felt very emotional and genuine, and it felt like a special moment being captured on camera. But to contrast that, there were other scenes in the movie that felt much more stilted, as if they were recreating moments for the purpose of getting it on film.

The problem is that the parts of the story that I found most interesting felt very glazed over. How did something like this happen? I get that the documentarians themselves don’t have the exact answer to that, but the question is raised several times in the movie and it’s never given a very satisfactory answer. Also, the twin study test comparisons was a fascinating bit of the movie, but it felt like it was treated as a minor side factoid. I would have loved more information about what the results of these tests showed and what that might mean for future study of human behavior.

Again, I feel like I’m failing this movie more than it’s failing me. This amazing, life altering event happened for these people and I get them wanting to document it in this format. If I were in their position, I would likely want to tell my story as well. But I never felt like I connected to this movie the way I was supposed to.

Chris: I found myself struggling through most of Twinsters to try to not smile and giggle like a kid and eventually I just gave up by the time Samantha and Anais met in person in London. One of the initial remarkable things that struck me was Samantha’s complete willingness to meet this person making a hefty claim. Perhaps it’s my own cynicism but my initial reaction if I was in her shoes would’ve been something like “alright, who is the con-artist and how are they trying to scam me?” Especially given the fact that Samantha is an actress and this is happening once a movie she’s in comes out. However, I’m glad that her general faith in people paid off so exponentially because it led to finding a whole new piece of her life. It’s also incredible that this documentary was so well-made using easily accessible cameras and iPhones seemingly on a whim when Samantha decided to first call Anais. It’s a polished documentary but the bare bones production gives off a personal feel that fit perfectly with the story being told. It’s a testament to the notion that anyone can be a filmmaker and as long as you’ve got perseverance and a story to tell, you can get it done.

Jason: Twins separated at birth is a classic trope for fairy tales. It happens so frequently in fiction that one only assumes that it happens in real life, too. The real stories never really get told though. That is mostly due to the fact that the twins never have a chance to find one another. If they ever did, it would be quite incredible! And so, this story is, indeed, very incredible. And the only reason they found one another is because of some random dude watching a random YouTube video. This easily could have been the plot of a late 90’s film about using the infant internet to locate a lost family member. In fact, I think that may have actually been a movie…

The messages in this doc of“who is family?” and “what does it mean to be from somewhere?” are endearing. I think these are messages that a lot of young people need to hear, whether they’ve been separated from their twin or not.

The only real criticism I have about this film is that it felt like it went on for too long. It would have been a lovely little half-hour special or something. But making it drag out for 80 minutes was a bit much for me. And as a final note, what do these people do that they can buy international plane tickets seemingly on a whim?? Sam is a bit actress in Hollywood and Anaïs is a student. How can they afford to fly all over the world within a few months like that? Must be nice...