Tell Me Who I Am

The best documentaries don’t need embellishment or bells and whistles. They give you the facts in an objective manner. If a movie’s job is to show, a documentary’s job is to tell. It’s a disappointment, then, when a documentary feels the need to rely on hoary filmmaking tricks, artsy-fartsy window dressing, and drawn-out melodrama. It cheapens the whole experience, especially when the subject doesn’t need it. Tell Me Who I Am is the story of twin brothers. At 18, Alex is in a motorcycle accident and awakens from his coma with no memory, save for who his twin brother, Marcus, is. Marcus has to help rebuild Alex’s life. Except there’s a secret, and the movie takes great pains to drag out revealing this, when it does need to. That secret is profound sexual abuse by their mother, who not only did it to them, but prostituted out her children to others. Marcus, seeing the opportunity Alex’s amnesia presents, lies and paints a picture of an idyllic family. This frees Alex from the trauma, but also allows Marcus to live the lie and bury his own trauma. It all collapses when their parents die, and in cleaning out the house, evidence is found. Marcus won’t go into detail, and Alex is unsatisfied, causing a breach. If the documentary stuck to the facts and dove deeper into the ethics of Marcus’ choice to lie, this could’ve been fascinating. Did Marcus do the right thing allowing Alex to live trauma-free, when telling him still wouldn’t bring back lost memories? Was it wrong for Marcus to play God and shatter his brother’s trust, leaving him to rebuild his life once again at the age of 32? The movie mentions this, but never explores it. It’s far too interested in artsy shots of houses, oceans, and hazy recreations of dead people at parties. It wants the drama to last, which cheapens the whole experience. What should be an honest baring of the soul with this bizarre and unique set of circumstances is hobbled by this need to succumb to the cheapest reality TV and true crime show tricks. Basically, what I’m saying is, the story itself is interesting. But it comes dressed up in unnecessarily fancy clothes. It’s like gilding the lily, but with fool’s gold.