Writer(s): Julian Broudy
Starring: Karissa Strain, Katie Strain, Yves Bright, and Angie Everhart
 |
| This also goes by the gag-inducing alternate title Downward Twin. |
There are few ideas (besides quality
ones) that MarVista won’t touch, and here they put their indelible
mark on the “evil twin” trope that’s been done a zillion times
before. The results are about what you’d expect: flat, predictable,
and lifeless, though there are (thankfully) moments of humor, both
unintentional and inadvertent, to make it at least somewhat
entertaining.
Leeann and Celeste Hart are successful
fitness instructors who have big dreams for their brand, cleverly
labeled One Hart. But when their mother dies, leaving each of them
with a decent chunk of money, the duo’s once healthy relationship
quickly deteriorates: Celeste wants to break away from her sister to
find herself, a notion that Leeann will have none of. And, like the
best of psychotic sisters, she will stop at nothing to keep Celeste
focused on her own one-sided dream, and to keep the Hart team
together…forever!
One of the main
problems with MarVista movies is that the material often comes off
like adult stories told by children: Except for rare instances of
truly disturbing material (such as the nanny’s backstory in Nanny
Cam), everything in their movies are so watered-down, that it
removes anything remotely resembling something impactful. Take, for
example, when Twinsanity devolves into a mindless slasher
movie (from just a mindless thriller): The kills are biteless, which
in turn makes our killer biteless, which in turn dulls the edges of a
“sharp” thriller, turning it into little more than the movie
equivalent of a butter knife. There’s no tension, there’s no
urgency…it’s all just a pedestrian thriller that has no interest
in straying from the path of predictability.
One thing that is smart (besides the
obvious choice to cast actual twins in the role) is that, while
identical twins, there are (generally) enough physical differences
that it’s easy to tell who is who, just from looking at them. I
suppose the makeup and hair stylists are probably mostly to thank for
that, but it prevents things from getting too confusing, especially
during the scenes when one is impersonating the other.
Unfortunately, the one time I apparently did get
confused was in the final scene, and I must confess I’m still
unsure of what to make of it: Without wanting to divulge too much,
the final shot lingers on one of the twins, with that twin’s
identity playing a huge role in the story’s outcome. I thought for
sure I knew which one it was (and still do), but my wife and another
online plot synopsis experts seem to go against the grain with my
thoughts. So I guess in a way the ending can be considered ambiguous,
though maybe I'm just too stubborn to admit that I'm wrong and dumb.
Either way, Twinsanity (which
also goes by the hilariously terrible alternate title Downward Twin,
a forced reference to Celeste's love for yoga) represents MarVista at their
worst-best: It's all a godawful, ill-advised mess, but most of it is
so bad it's humorous, rather than frustrating (though, to be clear,
there are still plenty moments in the latter camp, as well), making
it the perfect thriller to put on when you're not at all in the mood
for an actual thriller.
RATING: 6/10
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