FFWD Weekly
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| Film by FFWD Staff Twin Falls Idaho Twin Falls Idaho grabs you by the throat before the first scene ends and never lets go. This is as compelling a film about the human experience as one can find. Because of its subject matter, I hope this brilliant little gem will not – a likelihood – get shortchanged by its distributor in getting the exposure it needs to fill seats. The film tells the story of conjoined twins, Blake and Francis Falls, whose lives are as enigmatic as their unique appearance. Their situation has enabled them to achieve a bond and level of communication that is rare. In search of their mother, who abandoned them at birth, the twins take the opportunity to explore a new side of life in the "big city" of Twin Falls. Holing up in a Main Street dive, they celebrate their birthdays by ordering a prostitute – something these naive boys had obviously never dared before. After initial aversion, the call girl Penny starts to care for the brothers when she learns one of them, Francis, is ill. She slowly sees the true beauty beneath their unusual exterior and begins falling in love with Blake. Conflicts arise when a doctor informs her the twins must be separated to save the healthy brother. Torn between her love for Blake and attempts to comprehend the unspoken bond between the twins, Penny struggles with her own issues in her bleak life. Twin Falls Idaho is another great first-time film by first-time writer, director and actor Michael Polish. Y2K must be breeding creative talent like flies because the indie scene, thanks to people like Polish (and co-writer/actor brother Mark), is as strong and vibrant as ever. I cannot think of one thing wrong with this film. The subject matter might be the only turn-off for some audiences, but the characters are so right on; images and scenes continued to play in my head long after I’d seen the film. Rarely have I ever been so sucked into a story that I never doubted the authenticity of its characters – for most of the film, I truly believed Blake and Francis were actually Siamese twin actors. It was only in the concluding dream sequence, where Blake imagines himself a separate person, that my blind belief was suddenly challenged. Twin Falls is a wonderful film. It tackles issues of dependence, love, identity and loss in ways few films can ever hope to achieve. Its creators, twins Mark and Michael, are major talents embarking on careers of notable magnitude. As filmmakers, they are the real thing. |
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