Yesterday I somewhat unintentionally watched two films with very similar premises, about people who commit crimes against their exact doubles in order to improve their own lives in one way or another. The two films are, of course, wildly different in their respective characterization, plots, and perspectives, but they both answere the age-old question "can I replace my exact double?" with a resounding "NO!" Bette Davis thinks she is very successfully impersonating her rich twin sister though several people see right through her, and Chick's friends and acquaintances in The Man with My Face can almost immediately spot the impostor. Perhaps it's not as easy as this to spot fakers in real life, but maybe the most successful impostors are without close friends or relatives and thus have no one to give them away. Bette Davis's character in Dead Ringer is certain that she's "all alone" and the realization that she's not is both her emotional savior and legal undoing. Is the best impostor incapable of forming close relationships? Does he avoid them? Perhaps The Talented Mr. Ripley answers some of these questions, but I'll leave that for another day.
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