Siblings or dating: symbolism of lookalike couples in film
"Requiem For A Dream" by James Spahr is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
In some of my favorite movies, the main characters possess striking visual similarity, which makes me wonder whether their resemblance has symbolic meaning. Here’s how I interpret the significance of style essences and lookalike characters in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Requiem for a Dream.
Symbolism and style essences in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Benjamin Button employs a fantastical plot—protagonist Benjamin is born an old man and ages in reverse—to explore themes like timing and meeting the right person at the wrong time. The film’s outlandish premise highlights how in real life, time’s nature can feel absurd—like, how can events seem so slow in the moment but rapid in retrospect? Or why can we have mutual love for someone but the timing of our encounter seems the sole barrier keeping us apart?
In the film, the main characters’ Ethereal faces emphasize and elaborate on time-centric themes. The Ethereal essence relates intimately to the concept of time: strongly Ethereal people have an otherworldly aura that can create the impression that they’ve traveled here from a different time, an alternate reality. Elongated Ethereal curves also evoke a sense of mystical continuation, even suggesting eternity—the infinity symbol is an Ethereal shape.
So Ethereal’s timeless vibe echoes the film’s focus on the confusion and complexity of time. And protagonist Benjamin, who embodies a fantasy of having a backwards relationship to the traditional temporal order of existence, fittingly is played by dominant Ethereal Brad Pitt.
"Brad Pitt" by Perfect Boys is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Brad’s features are heavily Ethereal, including his soft dreamy oval eyes and lips.
Dramatic, Brad’s second essence, also often appears unconventional and otherworldly. So his Dramatic essence may further emphasize Benjamin’s uniqueness and separateness from others.
Brad’s third essence, Natural, in some ways is opposite to Ethereal and Dramatic: down to earth rather than otherworldly. Symbolically, Brad’s Natural essence is critical because it grounds Benjamin in reality. His Natural essence signifies that while no other human has experienced Benjamin’s journey of backwards aging, we all exist in a world bound by the strange, arbitrary-seeming dictates of time. We experience birth, growth, aging, change. We feel the agony of wanting to stop or reverse time. Brad’s Natural essence underscores his character’s relatability and incites further immersion in his unique and universal struggles.
"Brad Pitt" by malena rubinkas1 is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Brad’s powerful Natural jaw grounds his dreamy Ethereal features.
What’s really fascinating about style essences in the film is that Benjamin’s love interest, played by Cate Blanchett, is also an Ethereal Dramatic Natural. She too appears both otherworldly and grounded in reality.
Brad and Cate’s similar vibes may imply that there is a sense in which their characters are connected, meant to be together—together symbolically and in theory rather than in reality. United in memory, fantasy, possibility.
Image credit: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" by richliu(有錢劉)is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Siblings or dating? Or something slightly more complicated? Brad and Cate share all the same style essences.
A truism of reality is that we can’t always get what we want. Maybe there’s a way to accept this truth, and to embrace our experiences even if they aren’t the ones we wanted, while simultaneously finding catharsis or joy in possibility and fantasy. Maybe we can blend reality and fantasy the way the film does, and the way Brad and Cate’s otherworldly and down-to-earth style type does.
Symbolism and style essences in Requiem for a Dream
Requiem for a Dream explores themes of love and addiction through two characters who possess striking visual resemblance. Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly star as addicts and lovers and share similar though not identical style essences—Jennifer is Romantic Ethereal Dramatic Classic, Jared is Romantic Ethereal Natural Classic. Their shared traits of dark hair, pale skin, and blue eyes further heighten their resemblance.
"Jennifer Connelly" by afevrier is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Jennifer Connelly and Jared Leto have a similar look (especially if you ignore that Jennifer’s jaw has a lot of Dramatic, whereas Jared’s has a lot of Natural).
Love and addiction both have interesting relationships to concepts like similarity, sameness, and repetition. Jennifer and Jared’s similar look underscores the theme of love’s and addiction’s repetitive natures, where you crave more and more of the same person or more and more of the same substance.
In their scenes together, their similarity can feel simultaneously pleasing (in that it’s harmonious) and eerie, like if you squint you can’t distinguish one from the other; like if you squint, it can be hard to distinguish yourself from your addiction when you’re really entangled in it.
Image credit: "requiem for a dream. feb. 4th 2015. 22h40 (21:40 gmt). arte" by alatelefr is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Jennifer and Jared in Requiem for a Dream. I’m not sure if their sweaters are siblings or dating.
Both Jennifer and Jared are strongly Ethereal, and of all the essences, Ethereal has the most obvious relationship to the movie’s titular concept of dream—Ethereal embodies fantasy and realities that transcend our current circumstances. Jennifer and Jared’s characters both aspire to transcend addiction’s repetitive cycle.
Their shared Romantic essence is highly related to the expression of passionate emotion, of love and desire. In the film, the essence symbolizes both the desire to transcend and succumb to addiction, as well as the desire to remain in a passionate romantic relationship.
Deeply emotional Romantic features also sometimes evoke sadness. Romantic combined with dreamy, introspective Ethereal can heighten this melancholic quality. On the faces of Jennifer and Jared’s characters, the passionate, deeply emotional Romantic essence mourns both its own idealistic aspirations and the Ethereal dream.
Style essences in Mr. Nobody
Jared Leto also stars in Mr. Nobody, an achronological film that focuses on themes including love and time. Jared has some similarities in his style essences to his three love interests throughout the film—Linh Dan Pham, Sarah Polley, and Diane Kruger.
For instance, Linh Dan Pham is also a dominant Ethereal, and Diane’s Natural Classic Ingenue style type makes her visually similar to Romantic Ethereal Natural Classic Jared. (See here for how easy it is to confuse Ethereal Natural Classic and Natural Classic Ingenue).
There may be interesting symbolic meaning in some of this. But my limited memory of the film’s (incredibly confusing) plot precludes me saying much more. But I really loved the movie, despite that I can’t remember it, so I may rewatch and revisit this post.
