Overview
- The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday and earned about a 6.5-minute standing ovation that greeted director Werner Herzog and the cast.
- Rooney and Kate Mara make their first on-screen appearance together, playing sisters who speak, move and react in near-perfect unison, a technique they learned quickly in rehearsals that Herzog shortened to five days.
- The screenplay was written rapidly with the Maras in mind and is loosely inspired by the British twins Freda and Greta Chaplin, with the title drawn from a spoonerism reportedly uttered during their trial.
- Early reviews are sharply divided, with critics praising the Maras’ disciplined, uncanny performances and Herzog’s visual touches while criticizing the film’s wandering narrative and excess of digressive sequences.
- The film remains in competition for Venice’s Golden Lion, has no confirmed U.S. release date, and strengthens Herzog’s late-career festival profile as a maker of strange, fable-like dramas dedicated here to David Lynch.