What if every memory that haunts you could be erased? What if something truly horrific had happened to you and the person who loves you most could wipe that from your mind? Would you want them to? This is the ethical dilemma that 18-year-old Marcus Lewis faced when his identical twin Alex awakened after a motorcycle accident and Marcus was the only person Alex recognized. With no memories at all, Alex relied entirely on his brother as he tried to understand who he was. Workin... (Full plot summary below)
Enjoy FREE movies and series with your Prime (USA) subscription or when you start a 30-day free trial!
What if every memory that haunts you could be erased? What if something truly horrific had happened to you and the person who loves you most could wipe that from your mind? Would you want them to? This is the ethical dilemma that 18-year-old Marcus Lewis faced when his identical twin Alex awakened after a motorcycle accident and Marcus was the only person Alex recognized. With no memories at all, Alex relied entirely on his brother as he tried to understand who he was. Working from an autobiography by the twins, Perkins and the Lewis brothers craft a powerfully cinematic adaptation that helps the audience explore their incredible story and remarkable 35-year post-accident journey. It's a profoundly moving examination of memory and trauma, personal responsibility and, ultimately, love.
Leave your thoughts about Tell Me Who I Am.
| TheWrapCandice FrederickMarked by evolving degrees of miraculous vivacity, dread, despair, and ultimately hope, Tell Me Who I Am reflects a fraternal relationship equally encumbered by truth and lies but strengthened by love and an unflinching revelation in real time. It is utterly staggering. |
| Film ThreatAlan NgTell Me Who I Am is an incredible real-life mystery. |
| Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattBut the truth, when it does come out, is devastating — to the point that it can feel invasive to watch such a profoundly private moment unfold on camera for our benefit. |
| IndieWireDavid EhrlichIt’s hard to imagine a more crystalline look at the suppleness of someone’s self-identity (and the moral dilemma of someone else choosing to overwrite it) than Ed Perkins’ Tell Me Who I Am, a documentary so harrowing and horrific that it can only bear to scratch at the surface of its remarkable story. |
| RogerEbert.comTomris LafflyTheir tangible shared pain quickly turns an awkward performativeness into a most genuine therapy session, one that is both disarming and uplifting to observe. |
| The Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonThis remarkable true story is a finely crafted exercise in slow-building suspense, though it works better as a gripping mood piece than as journalistic investigation, its raw confessional style slightly compromised by niggling narrative gaps and dramatic contrivances. |
| VoxAlissa WilkinsonUltimately, the film is not just a wild and nearly unbelievable story; it’s a rumination on the lasting effects of sexual abuse, the complicated question of “good” lies, and the moral quandary that comes along with withholding painful information. |
| The New York TimesGlenn KennyTheir moment of resolution at the end is very moving, but the movie also testifies that while love and forgiveness can ameliorate suffering, it can’t really wipe it all away. |
| Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangIn its most rewardingly complicated moments, this absorbing, incomplete documentary reminds us that there is nothing definitive about what we think we know. |
| Slant MagazineKeith WatsonBy focusing so narrowly on the Lewis brothers’ relationship with their mother, the film inadvertently minimizes the scope of their abuse. |
