After Almost Two Decades, Triplets are Reunited

From left: Edward Galland, David Kellman, and Robert Shafran
in "Three Identical Strangers"
Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com

This year, we’ve had quite a few “based on a true story” movies where you’re surprised to believe that the events of the film had happened in real life.  We’ve had a controversial Kennedy-family scandal in John Curran’s “Chappaquiddick,” a college-campus art heist in Bart Layton’s “American Animals,” and an epic game of tag in Jeff Tomsic’s “Tag.”  

However, when a documentary tells us a true story, the experience has a whole other level to it because of the interviews and archival footage bring us so much closer to the real thing.  And, this experience becomes more memorable when you watch the unfolding of a true story of which you’ve never heard before.

Tim Wardle accomplishes this with his shocking and infuriating documentary, “Three Identical Strangers,” where he chronicles the heartbreaking effects of a separation and reunion between triplets, resulting in an intricate exposé and one of the year’s most-intriguing films.

For their whole lives, Eddy Galland, David Kellman, and Robert Shafran have grown up in their adoptive families, never thinking that they were one of three.  Then, in New York, 1980, circumstances arise that bring the 19-year-old brothers together.  While their time together is joyous at first, their reunion soon leads to consequences that none of they could have imagined.

On a few occasions throughout the movie, Wardle employs some dramatic reenactments of the events.  However, it doesn’t make the documentary feel like one of those run-of-the-mill true-crime shows with such reenactments.  Instead, Wardle films the stand-ins for the main real-life counterparts from their backs, which allows us to not be distracted by seeing the actors’ faces, but letting us imagine the faces of the real people on the actors.  This lets us to see these events play out as they blend aesthetics of both a documentary and narrative.

There are numerous layers to this mystery, and you’ll find yourself aghast at the truth as Wardle unravels it for you in one of the strangest and most-emotional true stories to be put on film in the last few years.  He provides vivid insight for these events, speaking with the brothers’ families, their friends, and the people who were behind their separation at birth.  This is a movie that will rattle your emotions because of how difficult it is to believe that what was done to these brothers could be allowed to be done to anyone.  We go from seeing them meeting each other as the best thing to happen to them, to it being the worst thing that happened to them.  It all results in a labyrinth of secrets and deception in which you’ll find yourself captive from beginning to end.  Although this is a documentary, there are many who might not know the full story, so there isn’t much that I can reveal because of spoilers. 

The documentary is only a little over 90 minutes, but Wardle still offers the fullest view that we could receive on this subject.  This makes “Three Identical Strangers” a must-see movie that will render you speechless.  However, that won’t last long because once you leave the theater, you won’t be able to stop talking about it.

Final grade: A