Movie Monday: Twinsters

Two weeks ago, ALONE in the house for an unheard-of four days, I was choosing a movie to watch. I decided to choose a documentary because it's been a long time since I'd watched one. I found Twinsters on Netflix and thoroughly enjoyed this fateful, mind-bending true story.

Samantha Futerman, a 25-year old actress living in L.A., had had a few significant TV and movie roles and had a growing following for her YouTube videos. In 2013, across the world in France, some young people were enjoying one of Samantha's videos when they noticed that she looked exactly like their friend, Anais Bordier. They watched more of the videos and showed them to Anais; the whole group was astounded by how much the two young women looked alike. Anais did some online searching and discovered that she shared a birthday with Samantha - November 19, 1987 - and that, like her, Samantha was adopted as a baby from South Korea.

Anais reached out to Samantha online - tentatively at first - and the two women began getting to know each other via video chats. The similarities between them were startling, even though Samantha had grown up in America and Anais in France. They contacted an agency that helps adopted children  find their birth parents and found a specialist on twins within the organization who recommended DNA testing, in addition to the adoption research. Eventually, the two young women and their families and friends met face-to-face in London, while they waited for the results of their DNA tests.

I won't give away how it ends, but it is a thoroughly enjoyable journey to watch these two young women get to know each other and find out more about their backgrounds. Samantha and Anais are both very sweet, endearing women, and watching them unravel the secrets of their lives is a joy.

Samantha wrote the documentary herself, and she and her friend, Ryan, directed it. Much of it is put together from real-time video chats between her and Anais, and videos friends and family took when they met. It's a charming and joyful (and fascinating) 90-minute documentary, perfect if you are looking for something light and life-affirming.

Twinsters is available free on Netflix or for $2.99 to rent on Amazon Prime.