Three Identical Strangers Review
By David Kempler
Identity Crisis
All I knew, or thought I knew, about "Three Identical Strangers" was that it was a documentary about triplets who were unaware of the fact that they had any identical brothers. Ten minutes into it, I remembered that it had been a big news item years earlier. However, what I previously knew covered only a fraction of the entire story.
For most of the first hour, this is a joy-fest, with three identical brothers that were separated at birth and adopted out to three different families, none of whom knew that they were getting one out of three triplets.
Upon finding their brothers, they are all deliriously happy about it and eventually move in together and become mini-celebrities in New York City, appearing on lots of television shows and then opening a restaurant called "Triplets". The restaurant was an enormous success, bring in a million dollars in its first year. Soon afterwards, the triplets disappeared from the public eye.
The rest of "Three Identical Strangers" examines how they were separated at birth and adopted to three different families, and the impact and toll it eventually took on all concerned. It is no longer a joy-fest. It's an examination of something incredibly nefarious. To further explain the details of it, would ruin your experience seeing it, and it is a story definitely worth exploring.
I will tell you a few things that won't ruin it for you but might make you more curious. All of the triplets were placed by the same adoption agency. One ended up with a fairly rich family, another with a middle class family, and the third with a blue-collar family. All were placed with families that had older adopted sisters of the same age. What a set of odd coincidences.
