REVIEW: The Silent Twins Gives Twins A Bad Name
Born in 1963, identical twins June and Jennifer Gibbons have always had an intense bond. A bond not many can form with other people, let only their own sibling. A bond, director Agnieszka Smoczyńska is trying to bring to life in her new film, The Silent Twins. Starring Letitia Wright (June) and Tamara Lawrance (Jennifer), the film follows the life of the Gibbons twins and this intense bond that the two have shared throughout their lives.
The film opens with the twins as young girls chatting up a storm on their fictional radio play. But suddenly the audience, and the girls, are pulled from this world to their real lives where we find the two completely silent, only communicating with one another. Refusing to speak to their parents, their teachers, or their siblings, the film focuses on this unnatural bond, and co-dependency, as the twins grow from girls to ladies and the difficulties, they face because of their choice to only communicate with one another.
Smoczyńska tells the twins’ story by entwining facts from Marjorie Wallace’s book The Silent Twins and actual pieces from the June and Jennifer Gibbons’ journals and books. The scenes featuring the Gibbons’ actual stories were by far the most interesting and captivating. However, there were too many pieces left out of the rest of story for the audience to really become invested in the film. Smoczyńska and screenplay writer Andrea Seigel opted to leave out several key explanations from the ladies’ lives that would have helped craft better storytelling. From what caused the twins to begin to only talk to one another, to the choices they made toward the end of the story, there were too many questions left unanswered. At first, I thought the questions I had while watching the film were because they were never answered in real life, but upon further investigation I found out I was wrong. Most of my questions were answered when I looked up the Gibbons’ story, which you should never have to do when you are watching a film based on a person’s life. Most, if not all, of your questions should be answered during the storytelling process.
My other biggest gripe with the story is that Wright and Lawrance were not identical twins. The two looked nothing a like, nor did I feel they had the deep connection needed to truly tell June and Jennifer’s story. Don’t get me wrong, I think both ladies separately do a respectable job playing their characters, but as a pair, it’s hard to understand why they didn’t try harder to cast actual twins for the roles. This film focuses heavily on intense relationship between these two ladies that is common among multiples. A relationship that is hard to replicate and even harder to bring it to life on screen. Honestly, it would have made more sense for the characters to have been sisters in the story rather than twins.
Unfortunately, this is a film I am going to recommend passing on. On the surface, it seems like the Gibbons’ story would be an interesting story to watch unfold onscreen. A film that gives audiences goers an inside look at the intense bond shared by these identical twins. But this film can’t quite decide what kind of story it wants to tell and thus misses all the pieces needed to help solve the puzzle that is the silent twins, the Gibbons.’
Grade: D