PLOT: At a group therapy session for people who have lost their twin siblings, Dennis (James Sweeney) and Roman (Dylan O’Brien) bond and start an unlikely friendship despite having little in common besides the loss of a twin. However, Dennis may not be exactly who he says he is…
REVIEW: Twinless is a bit of a throwback to an older kind of Sundance movie that I always dug – the comedy/drama related to family trauma. For years, these movies were a dime-a-dozen at the festival because they tended to be star-driven and often sold quickly to distributors (with the grand-daddy of all of them, Garden State, being a major hit). In recent years, the genre has started to dry up a bit, but it makes a welcome return to the fest with Twinless, which puts an interesting spin on the formula and goes places you won’t anticipate.
In it, Dylan O’Brien plays Roman, who’s recently lost his identical twin, Rocky. Despite their bond, the two couldn’t be more different. Rocky was gay; Roman is straight. Rocky had an easy time making friends and an easygoing temperament. On the other hand, Roman is sullen and often fit to episodes of intense rage. Yet, he ultimately means well and finds himself unexpectedly thrilled to have a new BFF in James Sweeney’s Dennis, who, like Rocky, is gay.
The movie starts out as a rather charming bromance, tackling a best buddy dynamic not seen enough – the straight guy/ gay guy friendship. However, Sweeney, who also wrote and directed the film, pulls the rug out from underneath the audience within the first twenty minutes, with the delayed arrival of the opening credits revealing the movie’s true premise. If you want to go in completely fresh, stop reading right now – but bear in mind, I won’t reveal anything that’s not revealed very early in the film.
Ready? Ok.
So, Dennis has a few big secrets, one of which is that he knew Rocky, and their whole relationship has been based on an escalating series of lies. While this sounds like it could be the basis for a Fatal Attraction-like thriller with a gay twist, Sweeney doesn’t go there, keeping the tone relatively light and not losing his ultimate focus, which is to depict Roman and Dennis’s thriving relationship, even if the latter’s lies keep threatening to unravel it.
O’Brien has one of the strongest roles of his career in a dual performance, with him playing the flamboyant, charismatic Rocky, while Roman, by contrast, is less of a bon vivant. He grapples with barely suppressed rage, both in his fiery relationship with his estranged mother (Lauren Graham in a small but potent role) and in his life. This is demonstrated at one point by having him pummel some homophobic bullies so severely that it goes from being cool to unsettling, with Sweeney deliberately allowing it to go on a beat or two too long.
Sweeney’s Dennis is also nuanced, with the film allowing you to understand his nearly sociopathic behaviour without ever condoning it. The fact is, the bromance between Rocky and Dennis is so charming that you don’t want to see it come apart, allowing you to almost root for the latter as he digs a deeper hole for himself. Aisling Franciosi also has a nice change of pace role (at least compared to something as harrowing as The Nightingale) as a woman who works with Dennis and proves to be a charming, calming influence in Roman’s life.
Given the film’s excellent reception so far at Sundance, it seems likely Twinless will walk away with a solid distribution deal and make Sweeney one of the next indie breakout auteurs. While only his second film, it’s exceptionally well done, juggling a variety of tones in a way that proves his steady hand at the helm. It’s a good little movie that further proves that O’Brien is the real deal as far as rising young actors go, and it is one to watch.
