Three Identical Strangers (****1/2)

It's the craziest story ever told: a boy reunites with his long-lost twin during his first year in college. The story breaks across east coast newspapers, and then another boy recognizes the two as himself. The third boy realizes he is a triplet. The strange story of Eddie, Robbie, and David is covered with remarkable skill in THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS, a whimsical documentary that takes dramatic and sinister turns. It's one of the more thrilling movie-going experiences I have had all year.

If you watch the trailer (or read the intro), you get the premise. The movie begins with talking heads of the boys as they recount their unlikely rise to fame. From unknown to superstardom, the triplets begin to dress alike, do the television circuits, even cameo in a Madonna flick. We see their interactions in home videos, learn about it from their separate families... They describe their reunion as looking through a mirror. Not only did these boys look alike, but they had similar interests (gasp, they all smoked Marlboro's!).

It was about midway through the film when I began to realize the depths this filmmaker (director Tim Wardle) was willing to go. It turns out New York adoption agency that separated them had done so purposely, and indeed they did it to several identical sets of twins. Logically, the adoptive parents begin a hunt to the truth, and thus the real meat of the film comes to light. What begins as a human interest story quickly grows and expands into a tale of greater morality and the long-posed question: nature versus nurture.

It's hard to describe the film much further without bringing up key plot points - points that I enjoyed all the better for their surprise. Let me just tell you that there is an elderly psychologist in the film, a Swedish woman who was part of the team that separated the boys to begin with. It's all part of a larger study, but this woman's insight (her name I can't remember) into human nature hit me like a shock of lightning. She is one of the most captivating (perhaps evil? Perhaps not) characters in any movie this year. She gives a small speech near the end of the film that just about took my breath away.

This expanded take on the story of these triplets quickly became much more interesting to me than their actual story, although the film does continue to muse over their lives until the conclusion. There is a quick wrap-up in which the director hastily tries to settle that "nature/nurture" debate that felt a bit contrived, but otherwise, this is a fascinating movie that tumbles oh so deep down the rabbit hole. Like last year's "Tickled," this is a documentary that I didn't even know hit me until it was all done. While it's not perfect, sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Here is living, breathing proof.