Synopsis
New York, 1980. Three complete strangers accidentally discover that they're identical triplets, separated at birth. The 19-year-olds' joyous reunion catapults them to international fame, but also unlocks an extraordinary and disturbing secret that goes beyond their own lives – and could transform our understanding of human nature forever.
Votre Filmothèque
Cast
- David KellmanSelf
- Robert ShafranSelf
- Edward GallandSelf (archive footage)
- Lawrence WrightSelf
- 90
TheWrap
Wardle spent five years making Three Identical Strangers after several other filmmakers had given up on this subject because they were always hitting a dead end, and so he deserves credit for journalistic doggedness and also for making a documentary that plays like a nerve-jangling thriller. - 83
The A.V. Club
So bizarre is this story that its most mundane aspects take on a certain profundity. Even when Three Identical Strangers falters, it fascinates, and that’s a claim very few documentaries can make. - 80
The Hollywood Reporter
This is a strange, ultimately quite distressing story touched by tragedy, told by Wardle with great skill and compassion in a brisk, consistently absorbing package. - 80
Screen Daily
Where some see coincidence, Wardle finds a true-life conspiracy, and pursues it all the way to conclusion after gripping conclusion. - 80
Variety
A gripping, stranger-than-fiction account of a real-world medical conspiracy, the film begins as a human-interest story and builds to an impressive work of investigative journalism into how and why they were placed with the families who raised them. - 80
The New York Times
Mr. Wardle relates that story smoothly and persuasively, but his telling sometimes provokes more questions than it answers. - 75
IndieWire
Three Identical Strangers does a solid job laying out a story that’s both remarkable and repulsive in equal measures. - 70
The New Yorker
Prepare to be surprised by joy, at the outset, and to wind up baffled and sad. Not that the saga is complete; many of the relevant files, at Yale, will not be unsealed until 2066. Less than fifty years to go. I can’t wait.