Some years ago, I taught psychology and we invariably did some lectures on ethics in psychological research. We talked about some of the more famous unethical studies, such as the famous Zimbardo prison study or Milgram's study on obedience. However, at the time, "Three Identical Strangers" and the revelations in the film were not available...and it's a shame as it would have been a great study to dissect. With my background, it's not surprising that I was excited to see the film once I learned what it was about and how the ethics of the study were completely lacking. And, so many, many things about the study were completely unethical...but you'll have to learn more about that when you see the documentary.
The story of "Three Identical Strangers" begins when a young 19 year-old arrives at college...only to have many people there recognize him! At first, he thought it was just a very friendly school...but soon it became obvious that the young man had a twin. After all, they were born on the same day, were adopted through the same adoption agency and looked like twins. Little did they realize that they were not a set of twins but two of the three out of a set of triplets. And, when their story made the newspapers, soon they learned there was a third!! Eventually, it turns out the same adoption agency separated several sets of twins and triplets. Why? To make them part of a secret psychological study on genetics. What?? Yes...the families never knew their babies had two other identicals...nor that this was a sick study on genetics and environment!! How bad did it go from here? REALLY, really bad....but I don't want to ruin the film....see for yourself.
So is the film any good? Yes, it's extremely well made, never dull and is well worth seeing. My only quibble has nothing to do with the film itself. My problem was that I saw it when it first aired on CNN...and CNN did a terrible job in showing it. The film was punctated with tons of commercials...so much that it seemed like a third of the time I was watching, I was watching commercials. So, try to find it elsewhere...such as through Netflix where they don't ruin the film with so many ads.
The story of "Three Identical Strangers" begins when a young 19 year-old arrives at college...only to have many people there recognize him! At first, he thought it was just a very friendly school...but soon it became obvious that the young man had a twin. After all, they were born on the same day, were adopted through the same adoption agency and looked like twins. Little did they realize that they were not a set of twins but two of the three out of a set of triplets. And, when their story made the newspapers, soon they learned there was a third!! Eventually, it turns out the same adoption agency separated several sets of twins and triplets. Why? To make them part of a secret psychological study on genetics. What?? Yes...the families never knew their babies had two other identicals...nor that this was a sick study on genetics and environment!! How bad did it go from here? REALLY, really bad....but I don't want to ruin the film....see for yourself.
So is the film any good? Yes, it's extremely well made, never dull and is well worth seeing. My only quibble has nothing to do with the film itself. My problem was that I saw it when it first aired on CNN...and CNN did a terrible job in showing it. The film was punctated with tons of commercials...so much that it seemed like a third of the time I was watching, I was watching commercials. So, try to find it elsewhere...such as through Netflix where they don't ruin the film with so many ads.