Rating: *** ½
Watching writer-actor-director James Sweeney’s Twinless on Amazon Prime Video is to be given an entirely unexpected definition of grief. It lightens the load of lugubriousness in magical ways, though never takes the rogue route of trivializing the arching mood of tragedy that soaks into the soul of the screenplay.
At the centre of the sobering script is Roman, who loses his twin brother Rocky in a freak car accident. That Rocky and Roman are played by Dylan O’Brien is just a stroke of luck for the screenplay. Dylan owns the double role , and rightly focuses on contouring the surviving twin’s characterization,rendering Roman as a deeply wounded soul who can’t get over his loss.
I want to see more of this actor’s work after watching what he has done in Twinless.
“ I don’t know how to be here without you,” Roman sobs in a memorable monologue where all the hurt of his loss comes out.
Roman befriends his deceased twin’s purported lover—yes, Rocky was gay—just to feel close to his dead brother. Rocky’s lover Dennis(boy, is he the Menace!) is played by James Sweeney,who is a goofy blend of boy-man and sinister .
It would be criminal to give away the layers of subterfuge that Dennis unveils as the slowburn plot proceeds from drizzle to sizzle.
Dylan O’Brien’s Roman plays it straight. In more ways than one. He plays a character who doesn’t know how to handle grief—who does!—and allows himself to be manipulated in a vulnerable state of mind.There are group therapy classes for people who have lost their twins.Which is like classes for people who choked to death while eating peanut sandwiches: way too niche.
The moments between Roman and Dennis are constructed with a casual canniness. You never know what the two will say or do next—their grocery shopping scenes merit a critique of their own—or what writer-director James Sweeney will do next. But whatever it is, we are booked for the ride.
It is not as if Twinless is committed to being only a two handler, Oh no! The film is swarming with memorable characters saying and doing things that are hard to set aside. Aisling Franciosi is smashing as Roman’s love/lust interest Marcie who is smart , knowledgeable(no, the two are not the same thing, not in this film) , compassionate and clued in.
In other words, the perfect date. Perfection , as we all know, can be boring and unwanted especially in a film like Twinless which laughs hard to life’s cruel jokes without being hurtful or offensive.
Buoyed by a burgeoning comprehension of how absurd life can be, Twinless is one of the best films of the year. Sad in a smiley sort of way. Hopeful in a melancholic way. Perky in a pensive way.
