‘Tell Me Who I Am’ (Netflix Doc.) Review

over 4 years ago

A heavy contender for most compelling Documentary of 2019 ‘Tell Me Who I Am’ is a nigh-unbelievable family memoir that takes a dark twist into nonfiction horror. The Netflix Doc marks the feature debut of director Ed Perkins (’Black Sheep’, 2018). This remarkable true story is a finely crafted endeavor in slow-building suspense that will grab your focus not let go.

The documentary’s subjects are Alex and Marcus Lewis, identical twin brothers who are now in their 50s. When they were 18, growing up in a wealthy, aristocratic family in Sussex, England, Alex got into a motorcycle accident. He fell into a coma for six weeks, and when he woke up, he had lost all of his memories. He didn’t remember his house, he didn’t remember his childhood, he didn’t know what country he was in, & he didn’t recognize his own mother. He didn’t even remember his own name but by some mystery of twin connection, Alex instantly recognized Marcus as his brother and someone he could trust. When the brothers’ parents proved to be less-than-helpful in Alex’s slow recovery, it became Marcus’s job to tell Alex his life story.

Marcus started Alex with the basics: Here’s what a table is, here’s what a TV is, here’s where you sleep. He showed him pictures of their childhood. He re-introduced Alex to his friends and girlfriend, who they didn’t tell about Alex’s condition and which, apparently, wasn’t much of an issue. Alex accepted everything Marcus told him without question. He didn’t press on any particular topic and filled in the blanks based on the idyllic families he saw on TV. If Marcus told him they took a family vacation to France one summer, he assumed they did that every summer. It seemed to Alex that he had a happy, normal, and fairly privileged childhood. Nothing could be further from the truth. Soon Alex starts to probe his brother deeper eventually unlocking a dark unbelievable trove of family secrets.

The documentary is neatly organized into three acts: Act I/Alex, ActII/Marcus, Act III/Alex & Marcus. This serves a narrative purpose but more importantly it perfectly outlines the two sides of the ethical & moral quandary at the heart of the film. The two brothers, who also co-wrote a 2013 memoir of the same name with writer Joanna Hodgkin, calmly tell their story in separate talking-head interviews, interspersed with dramatic reenactments of their childhood home. Along with the simple yet somehow tragic set pieces & music the entire production just works. “Tell Me Who I Am’ is as gripping, if not more, than any deep fiction film.

‘Tell Me Who I Am’ is on Netflix now.