The Paley Center was chockablock with long lost friends and family, a hug fest rejoicing a new must-see documentary, Three Identical Strangers, that starts in the celebratory mood of a miracle: triplets, separated at birth, and their happenstance reconnection as teens. As Tim Wardle’s smart film traces the path of these brothers, through home movies, footage of their appearances on Phil Donahue and all the talk shows, and interviews with the people who knew them best, a mystery unfolds, and the mood darkens until the charismatic New Yorker writer Lawrence Wright shifts the conversation to the science, asking, what is most significant in determining who we are, nature or nurture?

The brothers, David, Eddy, and Robert were adopted into families of different economic classes; they looked and behaved so alike, they became their own show. They had a cameo in a Madonna movie, Desperately Seeking Susan, and opened a restaurant in lower Manhattan called Triplets, a place many at the Paley Center remembered. Being together in business was not exactly a connection they needed, as their differences became glaring, and may have led to tragedy. Perhaps most chilling is a dramatization of the three sets of adoptive parents confronting the agency, Louise Wise Services, where questions about the circumstances of the baby placement were dodged. None knew of the other siblings. In the end, Wright says, we might all turn a corner and find our double. Maybe. For me here’s the takeaway: As in many aspects of life, asking the right questions is key.

Regina Weinreich

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