On Twin Falls Idaho
Dateline: 10/17/99
My grouchiest guest columnist takes on the Polish brothers' new movie. Surprise: she didn't like it. Please welcome: Bickering Beck.
I expected too much from Twin Falls Idaho. I wanted a good love story, but the movie was full of heavy-handed symbolism, stilted performances, and a plot mired by the characters' repeated revelations that, yes indeed, conjoined twins are people, too, with individual feelings and desires. Duh.
Granted, the Polish brothers as Blake and Francis Falls are disarmingly arresting in their tailor-made suits, and the use of color seems original, that is, until one of the characters reminds us that it's all been an advertisement for Urban Decay cosmetics. In comparison with other urban-set movies such as The City of Lost Children or Babe: Pig in the City, Twin Falls Idaho seems drab, shallow, and uninteresting.
Written,
directed, and starring Mark and Michael Polish, Twin Falls Idaho masquerades
as a love story. To celebrate their birthday Francis and Blake Falls hire a
prostitute named Penny, played by flat-chested model-turned actress Michele
Hicks (her eye make-up gives the better performance), who at first flees from
the twins, returns out of a desperate need to use a phone, stays because of
her compassion for the sick Francis, and eventually falls in love with Blake.
Sometimes the film's mood is quiet and gentle, especially in the whispered scenes between the two brothers, but all too often subplots and major themes, such as the abandonment of Penny's retarded child or the reunion scene with the twins' mother played by Lesley Ann Warren, are revealed in a coy manner, causing a frustrating obliqueness further bogged down in repetitious dialogue.
One
of the best scenes in the movie is a fight between the two brothers. This moment
reveals the true dynamics between the brothers, later articulated in a shining
performance by Garrett Morris as the neighborly preacher Jesus. It is unfortunate
that the movie primarily focuses on the reactions of Penny and the other half-wit
characters, rather than acknowledging the potential pathos of the Falls brothers.
By the time we're just beginning to understand and even to like Blake and Francis, they're whisked off to the hospital where Francis is literally and figuratively removed from the storyline. In the end, what's left is the pat boy-gets- girl happily-ever-after ending that neither satisfies nor answers the question everyone's been asking: so, how exactly did Penny and Blake make love with Francis in the room?
Disagree with Beck? Post to the forum, email your guide, or email Bickering Beck directly.
Related Links
Official
Twin Falls Idaho Page
Press kit info, some clips and stills.
Twin Stuff
"Learn more about why it's special to be a twin."
Babe: Pig in the City
Don't sneer. This film by Mad Max director George Miller is much too
sad, hip, funny, and full of visual delights to be left to the children.
The City of
Lost Children
Talk about visual delights. A zany fairy tale by Caro and Jeunet, the guys who
brought us Delicatessen.
All images courtesy of Sony Picture Classics
