‘Three Identical Strangers’
The unbelievable true story of identical triplets, separated at birth, then improbably reunited as three rambunctious twentysomethings who became the talk of the town, both in New York and on television, Three Identical Strangers comes on like a modern-day tall tale. It’s easy to see what a delight these three guys were as they were interviewed by Phil Donahue or Tom Brokaw, made a cameo ogling Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan, and opened their own restaurant in New York City called Triplets. These three gregarious boys with big wide grins, big meaty paws for hands, each sporting a glorious ’80s Jew-fro, they were made for television. They were absolutely made for the larger-than-life 1980s. But this documentary more than just scratches the whiz-bang surface of their story. It probes at the adoption agency that separated identical siblings to unknowing parents as part of a behavioral experiment. And it finally tells the story of the crucial differences that would ultimately separate the brothers. It’s a hell of a tale, though, and one very well told.