The Silent Twins
Focus Features | Release Date: September 16, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
59
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
10
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeDec 9, 2022
Though certainly at home to overcast misery, the film incorporates spooky, stop-motion animation and musical interludes that might have amused Ken Russell. It works in surprising ways. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshSep 15, 2022
It is a beautiful blend of unforgettable physical performance and visual lyricism brought to bear on the tragic life story of the Gibbons twins, their wildly imaginative writing woven throughout like a sparkling thread, offering a brief glimpse into their realm of existence and imagination. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 14, 2022
This is an engrossing, well-acted story – disturbing but also tender and sad. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonSep 13, 2022
What happens to the twins won’t be revealed here (those with overriding curiosity can find the Wikipedia page about them), but Smoczynska, Wright and Lawrance find the humanity and empathy in their story, if not the complex psychological reasons behind their unique lives. Read full review
70
SlashfilmRafael MotamayorSep 14, 2022
Sadly, as creative as The Silent Twins is, and as much homework as the filmmakers clearly did in replicating the details of the story and the works of the twins, the film never fully says anything meaningful. Not about the real Gibbons sisters, not about race, not about mental health and its treatment in the U.K. Read full review
70
VarietyGuy LodgeSep 14, 2022
Layering one wild formal flourish over another — from macabre stop-motion animation to elaborately choreographed musical fantasies — to channel the inner lives of two young women who communicated only with each other, keeping the rest of the world outside their circle, it’s a swing for the fences that sometimes, almost by design, spins out of control. Read full review
70
Screen DailyTim GriersonSep 14, 2022
The director of The Lure has a knack for peculiar protagonists — not to mention mixing whimsy with darker textures — but her latest provocation wouldn’t be so affecting if not for the committed performances of Wright and Tamara Lawrance, who play sisters who understand one another when no one else does. Read full review
67
ColliderChase HutchinsonSep 16, 2022
Even with its many narrative flaws, The Silent Twins gives us an insight into not just the lives of the two sisters but the way they made sense of it through stories of their own. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenSep 14, 2022
Although the film allows us a certain emotional proximity to the twins, it never rewards us with understanding or dramatic resolution. Their story draws us in, but distant (and silent) outsiders they remain. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubMurtada ElfadlSep 13, 2022
In The Silent Twins, the Gibbons sisters are let down by a script that undercuts the unique circumstances of their lives with familiar and ultimately less compelling storytelling tropes. Read full review
63
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpSep 15, 2022
There’s solace to take in the realization that in another director’s hands, The Silent Twins would have been completely standardized, absent the redeeming artistic value invested in the film by Smoczynska’s presence. But the film doesn’t capitalize on her vision. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperSep 15, 2022
For all its stylistic flourishes, “The Silent Twins” winds up a relatively superficial entry in the genre of mental health biopics. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesQina LiuSep 15, 2022
Directed by Smoczynska, The Silent Twins feels like an art exhibit to be installed on a continuous loop on a TV inside a cage in a museum. There’s a barrier that holds the audience at a distance so that watching this film feels like studying an invasive social experiment that places the Gibbons twins on display — like caged parrots asked to sing. Read full review
63
Washington PostMark JenkinsSep 13, 2022
The Silent Twins doesn’t try to explain its protagonists’ affliction, but the movie does express its crushing sadness. Read full review
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