The Identical
I have been thinking about this movie since Sunday night
when I saw it in a nearly empty theatre with my husband. Someone wanted to know what I thought
about it and my immediate response was simply, “I liked it.” As I have read other reviews and
thought through my own feelings and ideas regarding this movie, I would like to
share a more thoughtful “review”.
The movie begins in the 1930s and spans to the 1970s and the
story line is sort of like, what if Elvis had a twin brother and they were
separated at birth. I was never totally onboard with the acting of the main
character, Blake Rayne, playing the part of Ryan Wade, the Identical. It was the great acting on the part of
Ray Liotta, Ashley Judd, Seth Green and Joe Pantoliano that made the movie work
as well as it did. Their portrayal
of deep human emotion and humor evoked the same emotions inside of me. The
music was fun and entertaining.
There were several different issues thrown in without fleshing out any
of it, such as Israel’s 6 day war, racial issues, (“ Daddy, it ain’t
right”. “This isn’t your fight,
boy”) and being a Messianic Jew.
(“She had all her bases covered.”)
Research about the producer shows that the many nods to Israel may be
due to his own personal history. I
was struck with the feeling of authenticity with the set of the early
years. For example, when Ryan was
having his conversation with his preacher daddy, informing him that he had not
heard the same call on his life as his daddy had heard for him, I felt like I
very easily could have been looking at my long dead granddaddy’s pastor’s
study. The city street and service
station in the 50’s to 60’s era kind of took my breath away but another
reviewer complained that the street was too pristine. The costume changes for Ryan and the evolution of his hair
and facial hair through the years were a bit off to me…corny? Cheesy? Maybe it was just too much evolution in too short of a time span
to be able to keep up with. It was difficult for me to buy the story that the
twins never questioned why they looked so much alike and sounded alike,
especially when their paths crossed at a music competition.
After Ryan discovers who he really is he goes on a soul-searching
venture of sorts. The time frame
of it seems a little a little loose and a bit confusing. As the story resolved it left me with a
good feeling of how each character worked through their pain and loss and the
positive ending was not without the reality of some of the deep emotions of
family life.
Ryan Wade (The Identical) and his wife Jenny were told that
they would not be able to have children but during the credits, the take out
photos and videos showed them celebrating Christmas (with a lit menorah on the
mantle) along with his parents and two little boys, leaving one with questions.
How did the boys arrive since they
were told they couldn’t have them? The photos and videos were entertaining
though... well done and it felt like we were watching real family Christmas
videos and I didn’t want to leave the theatre while they were still playing.
All in all, I still really enjoyed it and if I have been thinking about it so
much that I wanted to write a review, it surely had an impact on me emotionally. I would think that is one goal of a
movie-maker. Maybe watching it a
second time would help me fill in some answers to questions that I had at the
end of the movie.
