As Gêmeas Silenciosas

I knew nothing about June and Jennifer Gibbons before watching this. Apparently there have been other tellings of their story on the screen and stage, but it still feels like a fresh story. Beautifully shot and acted.

There's something relatable to their story. I definitely would see how long I could go without speaking as a kid, not that I ever made it more than a day or two. You see the young kids deal with being outsiders, bullying, and how happy they seem when they were isolated and using their imagination. I found it incredibly sad, wishing I could befriend them, hoping they succeed in their creative endeavors.

It's not the most direct, action filled storyline but I found myself invested throughout. I really enjoyed the cinematography, at times diving into their imaginations. Overall, it's something I would definitely watch again. It felt different than most things I've seen recently.

I can't believe that the IMDb rating is so low on this film, I think it will become a cult classic in a few years. The two young girls in this were amazing. The way they got across how these girls invested their time in this secrecy blanket - to keep themselves same from a White supremacy world full of prejudice and hate, they were truly the masters of their fate. No matter how hard others push and poke and press, they did not crack - they are an icon for resistance.

In a world that they created to hide and shelter, each other - my tears poured down.

What an incredible piece of filmmaking and the two older Gibbon's girl/women were outstanding leads and these two incredible actors deserved the BAFTA's they received. For me, the director did a fantastic job, which was really quite poetic. I was very engaged with this presentation and the interpretation of the twins lives, which used their own creativity, this is truly an inspiring film and needs more love than its currently getting.

I went into this movie thinking it would be a story of triumph and redemption after a hard isolated life, and it was in a way... This story is much darker than I'd anticipated. These two girls had clear struggles and no one seemed to be able to help them. They lived in their own world of beautiful fantasy, while the world around them was cold and at many times disturbing. I almost stopped watching because I had not been ready to feel the strange unsettling nature of this film, but I'm very glad I didn't.

This story will stay with me for a good while.

Hard to watch at times. Fascinating. Heartbreaking. True.

I am an identical twin. Understanding them was easy. I felt that bond as a child. The language they created, the words they conveyed to one another without speaking, the worlds they lived in, and the metaphorical dance they endlessly performed was something my twin and I had. The difference was that we grew out of that special closeness, the bubble that we inhabited eventually popped. The film takes us on a similar journey, flawlessly, as if the twins produced it themselves. The direction, script, acting, costumes, art direction, score, and cinematography all masterfully come together to recreate their perfectly delicate and complicated twin-dom. This is a brilliant film, a delicious character study that will touch you deeply... if you let it.

Greetings again from the darkness. Twins often have their own language or way of communicating. However, sisters June and Jennifer Gibbons of Wales took this to a new level, creating a mysterious dark connection that no one else every understood. Andrea Siegel has adapted the screenplay from Marjorie Wallace's book, and Polish director Agnieszka Smoczynska (THE LURE 2015) delivers the style and creep factor, while missing out on answering the questions raised with the story.

The young sisters are seen giving a fake radio broadcast, and we get a glimpse of their awkward behavior during childhood ... behavior that left their parents and siblings feeling helpless. Letitia Wright (BLACK PANTHER, 2018) and Tamara Lawrance (KINDRED, 2020) take over as teenage June and Jennifer, respectively. While the young ones are well cast, it's the work of Ms. Wright and Ms. Lawrance that keep this one watchable despite the meandering. The awkward behavior of adolescents evolves into bizarre behavior of teens, and ultimately criminal behavior and some type of mental illness.

Pure elation of a new typewriter is all too quickly erased by irritation and anger that leads to fighting, or worse. Director Smoczynska does well to use stop motion animation periodically in helping to explain what's happening with the two girls. Child psychologists have no luck breaking through and the sisters are ultimately separated and locked away at Broadmoor psychiatric hospital by age 19. By this time, it's difficult not to view them as psychopaths.

It's interesting to watch as these two survive on the fringes of society in near mental isolation, and use writing as a creative outlet to unleash their inner thoughts. We never really know if we should have empathy for the girls, and that becomes even more difficult given their later behavior. Journalist Marjorie Wallace (played here by Jodhi May) documented her interactions with the sisters, but we can't help but wonder if this story is better told in documentary form - despite the strong work from Letitia Wright and Tamara Lawrance.

Opens in theaters on September 16, 2022.