Falling For The Twins

I've been into the Polish twins since I saw Jackpot and Northfork a couple of years ago, and I'd been waiting to see this film since it was released. I was not disappointed.

The subject matter - conjoined twins - is more than tricky, and it's handled with a truly impressive balance of seriousness and humor; the humor does not come at the expense of the story but rather is intrinsic to Francis' and Blake's lives, as they are seen dealing with their reality of being conjoined from birth. The catalyst of the story, the hooker played by Michele Hicks (who was also with them in Northfork) proves to be the perfect foil for the twins. One of the best scenes is the one where she takes them to a Halloween costume party - the one night of the year, she says, where they can "be normal."

By the end of the movie, the seriousness of the situation comes to the fore, and it's handled beautifully, eloquently and with exactly the proper amount of emotion and just the right touch of Scorpionic restraint, so it never becomes maudlin. Not quite a perfect film - it could have been a little shorter, but a brilliant, original, daring and deeply felt project nonetheless.