Going to the theatre has, for me, always been like a little Christmas. Perhaps that’s because when I was growing up, my family always tended to see more movies during the holiday season… but no matter the film they chose, I never once turned down a chance to see something — anything — on the silver screen. To this day, whatever the time of year, when I walk into a dark room with rows of fuzzy seats it’s as if I’m about to tear into a colored-paper package and discover something new. Sometimes it’s a dud, but sometimes it’s a priceless gem, and that’s what keeps me coming back over and over.
So, when I was invited to the preliminary screening of a small feature film that I’d never even heard of last week, I didn’t for a minute think about refusing the offer. I barely had time to take the subway home from work and inhale a hasty dinner before bolting back out the door and half-jogging all the way to the New York Institute of Technology, where I would get to curl up and watch The Identical and decide whether all of the rushing was worth it.
Less than ten minutes in, I knew it was worth it.
I hadn’t so much as glanced at a movie poster for The Identical before I walked into it, so I was pleasantly surprised to find myself enveloped in a musical, spiritual journey that spanned several decades of Americana.
I’ve seen a lot of movies - some musicals, some dramas - attempting to follow the past lives of famous athletes, noted musicians, or legendary historic figures. Each film has, for me, been a colorful portal back into a decade of American history that I never got to see with my own eyes… But this film was the absolute best of them all. From costume design to the golden original soundtrack itself, no other tale has made me so nostalgic for years I never lived in.
Now perhaps I’m wrong in gushing over this film’s accuracy since I’m a child of the 90s and can’t really know what any earlier decades were like, but no other movie has looked so identical to the faded photographs of my parents’ and aunts’ and uncles’ teenage years. No other soundtrack (sung by the actual performers, not dubbed) has sounded so deep and resonant. It made me more than once wonder if the actors were actually recorded on vinyl. (And yes, I have heard vinyl before — it was the richest sound I’ve ever heard in all my life).
The story follows Ryan Wade, the musically-gifted son of a southern preacher, as he tries to determine the purpose and direction for his life… while somewhere many miles away, an identical singer by the name of Drexel Hemsley is taking the world by storm.
At least one aspect of my youthful ignorance was a help instead of a hurt at this point: as someone who doesn’t know the list of famous “oldies” artists by heart, I was able to suspend my disbelief for the evening and imagine that somewhere back then, these two identical men really were out there somewhere.
It’s a tale of fiction of course, often hinting and nudging at the rise and fall of Elvis Presley himself… but as I found out afterwards, this movie is actually a glorious examination of a great unspoken “what-if” scenario in King’s life. Not everyone knows that the great rock legend was in fact born an identical twin: he had a brother who died in infancy. Or did he?
While the film has to create its own original characters and run parallel to history for us, it swept me in nonetheless. It’s a tale that will touch the heart of any music lover… or any young adult searching for their life’s purpose, for that matter.
I will admit, though, the movie’s lone flaw was the way it hinged on Wade’s search for himself… and then glossed over his eventual career choice in the end, as if the only reason he felt lost was because he didn’t understand his own DNA. But even then, that’s really the only minor chord in what is otherwise an incredible, rockin’ time. This movie examines faith, choices, integrity, and good intentions in a way that is both family-friendly and sidesplittingly comical. For so many of us that wonder how much of our lives are governed by chance or circumstance or providence, this story shows us two men with the same potential for greatness: one of them successful, and the other searching. One is guided by himself, the other by integrity. One of them lost, the other seeking his way. The Identical gives us a human being that we can believe in, and in a roundabout way it gives us a chance to believe in ourselves, too.
Just as the main character of this film so often goes through his life as an unsung hero, so too this film may be overlooked by the mainstream box office, despite the fantastic power that it has. It’s releasing into a select few theatres on September 5th, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I find myself in line somewhere on that day, just for a chance to sit in a row of fuzzy chairs and step back into time all over again.
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