[REVIEW] ‘The Identical’ – Is That Guy Elvis or Something?

No, this is not a movie about Elvis. But apparently it was possible, even in a world where Elvis exists,  for a guy who looks, sounds, and even dances exactly like him to be equally as famous in his own right. It’s Hollywood. Go with it.

The Identical is a coming of age story by an independent film studio that comes straight out of Nashville, Tennessee. It demonstrates good morals as it tells the story of a man who must come to turns with his past as he follows his dream of being a performer.

Identical twin boys were separated at birth. Alabama, in 1935, was a time where there were no jobs and it was very difficult to survive. Due to such hard conditions it drove new parents to the difficult decision of giving one of their new twin boys to a traveling evangelist and his wife, both of whom were unable to have children. The two boys, though coming from different backgrounds both have the same drive to go into music. As destiny has her way the first twin, Drexel Hensley, was already on his way to becoming a star by the 1950’s. This story follows the second twin, Ryan Wade, as he was raised to follow his dad in the ministry. He knows this isn’t what he has passion for so he goes against the grain to follow the call of music. The road gets a little percarious as the truth of the past comes out and he understands why people call him “the Identical.”

They got a nice cast. Blake Rayne (who really should be playing Elvis’s identical) plays the main roll with with, most notably, Ashley Judd (Divergent and Where the Heart Is) and Seth Green (The Italian Job-“You’ll never shut down The real Napster!”).

I could relate to the values and sensibilities and hey, it’s about music. I liked it. It’s also based out of Nashville and as I mentioned at the beginning, they were definitely going with the Elvis vibe here. I was totally ok with that until they mentioned Elvis. That’s when logic took me out of the story, but I digress. It starts out pretty well and I felt like it had a good pace as we figure out the characters but it slowed down a lot in the second half. I didn’t feel like there was a real change in the character toward the end. Maybe I’m jaded but I think the writing could have been a bit grittier and could have gotten the theme of “be a good person” across a lot better. The movie was still good, but in the end, too cautious to where it kind of fall flat. I did enjoy the movie for what it was: the story of a guy who wants to follow God and find his own place in the world.