Let Aisling Franciosi Be Funny

Director-writer-star James Sweeney hadn’t seen Aisling Franciosi in anything before casting her in his sophomore feature, so it felt like an opening-night Sundance surprise that Franciosi delivered such an inspired comedic turn in Twinless. In the film, Dennis and Roman meet at a twin bereavement group and strike up an unexpected friendship. Sweeney’s Dennis is wry and self-conscious and gay, and Dylan O’Brien’s Roman is hunky, angry, and very straight. Franciosi plays Marcie, Dennis’s extremely affable co-worker toward whom he is often cutting and passive-aggressive for no apparent reason beyond her own comfort in the world. It would be one thing if Marcie was just happy all the time, but she reacts as, well, most women would upon seeing someone who looks like Dylan O’Brien, and when Roman and Marcie’s attention turns toward each other, Dennis is increasingly vindictive and involved in their budding courtship.

There are a handful of turns in Twinless that complicate the relationship between the two men at its center, but Franciosi’s Marcie stands between their will they/won’t they/wait, what are they? as a voice of reason and humor. “I don’t do a lot where I get to smile,” Franciosi pointed out in the post-premiere Q&A on January 23. And to her credit, she’s right. Do a quick scroll through the Irish actress’s credits and you’ll see an onslaught of misery. Her breakout turn in Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale was like watching a full-scale panic attack, and her most notable standouts since — The Unforgivable, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, and Stopmotion — all sit somewhere between drama and full-blown horror.

Marcie is a deceptively tricky part to play: Too much guileless positivity could lean a little Kimmy Schmidt, but Marcie’s innocence and genuine concern for every character grounds Sweeney’s dramedy from going full-tilt self-loathing. For the first half of the film, Franciosi plays Marcie as the most stereotypical co-worker you could ever have: ever-curious, ever-affirmative, ever-engaged with what Dennis is doing whether he wants her around or not. She’s a little sad, sure — she thought she’d be married with kids by 28 — but her perky attitude gives Dennis a foil through which he can continue to misbehave, slinging passive-aggressive slights at her knowing she won’t ever stop. Franciosi’s wide-eyed smile as she dodges insult after insult provides some of the movie’s biggest laughs, but as Twinless goes on, Marcie shifts from the movie’s punching bag to its heart and soul.

This isn’t exactly the first time Franciosi has gone lighter — she had an arch turn in this past summer’s Speak No Evil, where she played creepy-funny James McAvoy’s creepy-funny wife tormenting MacKenzie Davis and Scoot McNairy. In both Speak No Evil and Twinless, Franciosi gets big laughs out of pretending something kind of fucked up is actually totally fine and regular and not a thing to panic about. Being able to garner reactions of both horror, laughter, and the occasional double threat of horrified laughter is no small feat. It’s not to say that Franciosi is wasted on her more dramatic turns, but this is a performer with a genuine knack for what’s funny about something not funny. Here’s hoping her scene-stealing turn in Twinless opens the door for more comedic roles for her — if we’re going to make her keep suffering on the big screen, then the least we can do is have some fun with it.

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