Movie Review: Tell Me Who I Am

Tell Me Who I Am *** ½ / *****

Directed by: Ed Perkins.

 

Tell Me Who I Am has the kind of hook that if it was a plot of Law & Order SVU, you would call too far-fetched (and that show jumped the shark at least a decade ago). Marcus and Alex are identical twins, who grew up in the privileged class of England, the sons of wealthy parents. When Alex was 18, he was involved in a motorcycle accident, and although he survived, all his memories of his childhood were gone. The only person he remembered was Marcus, because, well, they are identical twins. Alex relied on Marcus to fill in the gaps of their childhood, and Marcus does so. But not everything makes sense. Why do the two of them live out in the garage of the huge house – and aren’t even allowed a key to the front door of the house? Why do their parents seem like they are hoarders? Why is there dad angry all the time – prone of fits of rage? Why, when their father is dying, and asks his sons for their forgiveness, does Marcus refuse to grant it? Why is Marcus not all that close with their mother? Why do all the strict rules of the house not relax once the father is dead? Alex has been given a clear picture of their childhood by Marcus – but not a complete picture? What is he hiding?

 

You can probably guess some of what those blanks are, and you would largely be on the right track. Over the course of Tell Me Who I Am, the walls start to come down more between the brothers than they ever had before. They both explain their positions on the subject – Marcus wonders why he should want to give Alex those memories, those things that have haunted him for his entire life if Alex doesn’t have them already. And if he tells Alex, he’ll have to relive them himself – and he has never told anyone. For Alex though, it feels like a whole piece of himself is missing – and he doesn’t know what. Eventually, he knows the barest of descriptions, but what actually happened is not something Marcus wants to go into. The twins have remained remarkably close their entire lives – they run their companies together, they are close in every respect. But this is something that Marcus just cannot bring himself to “give” Alex.

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Eventually, of course, the movie will give us those details. As directed by Ed Perkins, in a perhaps too stylish fashion, the film is broken down into three acts – the first about Alex piecing his life back together after his accident with Marcus’ help, the second about Marcus’ feelings as to why he cannot go to the places Alex wants him to, the guilt he feels about it, and the frustration Alex feels about not knowing. And then, in the final act, a kind of shared therapy session, when the two of them finally sit down face to face, and hash it out. By then, it is a remarkably cathartic moment – and as unlikely as it seems, even somewhat uplifting. These brothers, now in their 50s, still having some new ground to cover – some new discoveries to make. And once again, they’ll get through it together.