The Identical – Movie Review

The Identical – PG
Release Date: Fri 05 Sep 2014

This movie left me wondering why. Why was this made? Was it that they had an actor that looked like Elvis but couldn’t get the rights or afford to pay his estate? Is there a movie in here that got scrapped and re-edited into a movie about twins separated at birth? I still don’t have the answers.

Blake Rayne looks, sounds and moves like Elvis Presley. The title of the movie does not refer to this, however. He plays twin brothers Ryan and Drexel. Ryan was separated at birth for financial reasons and raised by a preacher (Ray Liotta) and his wife (Ashley Judd.) This happens because the boys’ biological father hears about how the preacher’s wife can’t have children. So here’s a baby!

The biological mother is against it immediately. Cut to the very next scene, the preacher and his wife are there. Did the father convince her? Threaten her? We never know. The mothers hug, each holding a baby and the preacher’s new family drive off into the night.

Normally I wouldn’t write this much about the details of the plot, but all of this happens very early on. I’m trying to demonstrate how bafflingly inhuman and weird the movie is. Sometimes it feels like a satire of an Elvis biopic. Other times it feels like a made-for-TV movie.

All of the music is original, some supposedly written by each brother. It’s appropriate to the era, but doesn’t demand to be listened to.

Come to think of it, Ashley Judd does seem to be crying all the time. This movie never caught a rabbit and it ain’t no friend of mine.

Aaron and I saw it in the theater and has a discussion afterward in the car: