TWIN FALLS IDAHO (director/writer:Michael Polish; screenwriter: Mark Polish; cinematographer:M. David Mullen; cast: Penny (Michele Hicks, former model) Michael Polish (Francis Falls), Mark Polish (Blake Falls), Lesley Ann Warren (Francine Falls), Patrick Bauchau (Miles, doctor), Jon Gries (Jay, lawyer), Garrett Morris (Jesus), William Katt (surgeon), Holly Woodlawn (Flamboyant at Party), Ant (Trey), 1999)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Michael Polish's feature debut as director, Twin Falls Idaho, tells the story of conjoined twins, Blake (Mark Polish) and Francis Falls (Michael Polish), whose lugubrious lives are a result of their inexplicable birth and unique appearance. Their situation has made them bonded by the hip and forced to exist together, with the stronger Blake keeping the dying Francis alive by having his heart do most of the work for both. They chose not to get surgery, saying that they came into this world together and will leave together. Having come to an unnamed Idaho city, from their circus home, in search of their mother (Lesley Ann Warren) who abandoned them at birth, wanting to see her before they die, realizing that Francis is fading fast. As a birthday gift for their 25th year, Blake calls a prostitute for Francis, who comes up to their flea-bag hotel room and after initially being repulsed by them as freaks, running away from them, returns to get to know them and help the sick Francis by getting her doctor-friend (Patrick Bauchau as Miles) to treat him.
The film is packed with tension, emanating from the choreographed looks given off from the brothers, that is filled with their history of fear and insulation from the world around them. It is through the eyes of Penny (Michele Hicks, a former model), the prostitute who remains with them because she wants to get some good karma, after viewing her life as a failure, that we begin to know the boys. Penny, like the audience, gets used to these freaks and begins to see them as very gentle and touching human beings, and her heart, not her sex, goes out to them. She falls for the more articulate Blake, which causes some jealousy for his brother, being that this is the first time that the brothers can't share the same experience. At this point, the story could have gone in a number of directions, there were just so many themes it touched on, but chooses not to sensationalize its tale, instead it becomes a very sobering tear-jerker. Though there were some moments for levity, as when Blake tells Penny, "Maybe I'll see you when I'm single," the film, nevertheless, remains too sober for its own good.
For the Siamese twins, what becomes important is not their first taste of sex but of an intimacy shared with an attractive woman. Their physical and emotional constraints become the storyline, and the two minutes of loneliness experienced every day when Blake goes to sleep and when he wakes up, is something Blake can wonder about, giving him a sense of individuality. At a Halloween party that Penny takes them to, which she says is their one day to be seen in public as normal, it is their one day to not be looked upon as freaks-- becomes for them their acid test with the real world. But all they see at this party are people who are less normal than they are. The symbolism comes on a bit too heavy, as we see a couple dressed as Siamese twins just untie the strings that connect their costumes- which is something that the brothers are unable to bring themselves to do, realizing it would be the death of Francis and anyway, Blake would only have a fifty-fifty chance of surviving, plus he is afraid of living alone. For the brothers, they just prefer to be left to themselves and let their fate be as written, though Blake's heart beats faster than his brother's, demanding a little more than what he has so far received in life.
They have a few more contacts with worldly people, with mixed results. Penny's sleazy entertainment lawyer friend (Jon Gries), tries to talk them into becoming a freak show for him to promote and make a million bucks, which causes them to temporarily turn against Penny for bringing him around. And then there is Jesus (Garrett Morris), their next door neighbor, who is fully into the Jesus trip and brings the two to the hospital even though they didn't want to go. The symbolism here, is that even if religion means well, it still does the wrong thing even when doing the right thing. Jesus should not have been so consumed with himself to think he was Jesus and respected the twin's wishes, just like the worldly doctor-friend, Miles, did, when he examined them and knew that they came to the hotel to die together and let it go at that.
The Polish twin brothers might be very close in character to the parts they play, except for the physicality of being coupled. So it is not surprising that they are very effective and convincing in their peculiar roles. The female part of their menage a trois, was played energetically by Michele Hicks, but was a somewhat less believable role than the twins.The whore with a heart of gold is already a staple of film lore and she brings nothing new to the table with this performance. Her acting contrasted between being particularly touching to being strident and, at times, she was not very accomplished in her part. The other characters and especially the mother, had either too small a part to have an impact; or, were not developed at all. Why the mother just abandoned the kids (aside from being shocked by what she saw) and what happened to the twins growing up, never came out in the telling of the story. When they were youngsters, someone had to take care of them and should have seen to it that they got the operation to prevent them from becoming a freak show.
The intensity of the film and its haunting nature worked to its benefit, as it made us see the twins as they are; the film pulled no punches and stuck to the compelling nature of its subject matter. But these same advantages also worked to the detriment of the film, as the story was, at times, tiresome and rife with too much territory in which to go for all the problems it came up with. The film couldn't free itself from all the pain entailed in the three characters, and kept making the story more and more muddled. An example of that, would be the film's ending, where Penny encounters the now single Blake and possible romance is hinted at, but the story just seems to be warming up as it ends on such an unclear note.
This original film had too many flaws in its storytelling and never became an inspiring drama or an entertaining work. Instead, it is an interesting film, that touches on a mature subject of how one can be both lonely while never being alone, how Siamese twins court a woman, and also, how they grow up to be deprived without a mother's love. It should be commended for its mesmerizing style and enormous strength it showed in sticking with an unpleasant subject most films do not usually cover. The brothers had something to say, but perhaps it was too much for them to say in one film, even in a film with a perfectly eerie cinematography to match its storyline. It is a film that has its heart, seemingly, in the right place; it, nevertheless, missed the boat on telling the sexual story it promised but never delivered. A prostitute not having sex with a client who requested it is hard story to forget so easily, as it seems, if done right, that could have been an innovative and moving scene and helped the film recover from being too bleak. The film got caught up too much in the tragedy of the twin's life and dwelt too much on the gravity of their situation without coming up with much more than heavy symbolism for its answers (chopsticks broken in half, a two dollar bill as change in a cab and later on the subject of a lecture by the good doctor telling how if the bill is torn in half it is not worth as much as if it were whole). I found those explanations to be too trite, and since I was never fully convinced that this wasn't a manipulative film, playing on the freakish nature of the brothers even if not sensationalizing it, I left the theater not fully satisfied with all of the storyline.
REVIEWED ON 9/28/99 GRADE: C+
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
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