Review of Inseparable (2012) by Arslan K — 21 Nov 2013

I saw this on Youtube after I finished watching Sherlock. At the time I was still tentative when it came to watching movies/programs with Benedict Cumberbatch. Sure, he was great in Sherlock, but his earlier stuff could've been nothing but artsy, boring, and utterly joyless and impossible to watch.

I decided that since this was only a staggering 11 minute long film that I would give it a try. It's 11 minutes, what's the worse that can happen. Apparently, A LOT! This story is about a young father who finds out in the beginning of the film that he has some sort of terminal illness and that he will inevitability not survive, and in 11 minutes, we watch him deal with the initial shock, his emotional breakdown, and his solution to the problem, which involves his twin brother.

Here is what makes this film AMAZING and, in my opinion, what makes this one of Cumberbatch's best performances. We are allowed about 3 minutes to get to know his character, enough time to know that he has a loving wife and a child.

Just after that, we are told that he is going to die. In those first 5 minutes of this film, we are already so emotionally invested with this character, that we are oddly devastated when we find out that he isn't going to survive.

Is that all? NO! Cumberbatch also plays the twin brother, who is presented as someone who has not made good life choices and is the polar opposite of his brother, yet, somehow, we care for him too. By the end of this movie, you are left in awe and emotionally compromised by Cumberbatch's performance and are most likely in tears.