James Sweeney’s “Twinless” (2025) centres around two men who meet at a twin bereavement support group in search of their better halves. It shows Sweeney back in the director’s role after his 2019 film, “Straight Up,” which explored the romantic relationships beyond the known tropes of sex and gender. His latest continues in the same vein of witty, irreverent humor — not just for fleeting laughs, but as a way to explore new, non-normative forms of emotional connection.
While doing so, it reveals darker undertones of desperation, alienation, and self-loathing through its flawed characters, who hold on to any sense of belonging while trying to make sense of their complicated past and present. Dylan O’Brien headlines the cast as a grieving brother struggling to move on with his life, while Sweeney co-stars as a young man he meets during that exhausting process. Besides them, the central cast includes Aisling Franciosi, Lauren Graham, Chris Perfetti, and Susan Park.
Spoilers Ahead
Twinless (2025) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
“Twinless,” written and directed by James Sweeney, follows Roman and Dennis, two young men who bond with each other while grieving the sudden loss of someone they loved.
What happens in Twinless?
We meet the protagonist, Roman (Dylan O’Brien), at the funeral of his identical twin, Rocky. Although devastated by the loss, he does not shed a tear, unlike Rocky’s friends and acquaintances, who get emotional. Later, he doesn’t seem as invested as his mother, Lisa (Lauren Graham), who takes care of Rocky’s stuff in his apartment. It feels like she wants to rip the pain off like a Band-Aid so that Roman can move on from this incident without the emotional baggage. However, Roman needs more time to process his emotions. He isn’t trying to move on only from the loss, but from the bad or unflattering parts of his bond with Rocky. That leads him to a bereavement support group for people who have lost their twins.
How does Dennis meet Roman?
Dennis (James Sweeney) meets Roman at the support group. They bond over their mutual feelings of guilt, shame, and ennui. Roman decides to stay back in the city for a while, which gives him more time to spend with Dennis. That’s how they end up sharing a bit more about their lives. In a tender moment, Dennis says that Rocky died because of him. But he quickly realizes that it can end the special bond he has built with Roman. That’s why, the next moment, he lies that his twin brother, Dean, died because of him. He claims that Dean was supposed to pick him up from the airport, and he made Dean rush, leading to his fatal accident.
In reality, Dennis doesn’t have a twin. He only pretends so that he can prolong his time with Roman. In the past, he also lied about having a twin to Rocky, with whom he went on a romantic date. They spent a night together, which made Dennis hopeful about their relationship. Sadly, Rocky never reached out to him after that night. One day, Dennis saw Rocky with another man, George (Chris Perfetti), going about his day as if nothing ever happened between them, which broke his heart. So, he stopped his car in the middle of the road and walked out to get Rocky’s attention. That’s when a car crashed into Rocky, which led to his death.
After the accident, Dennis showed up at Rocky’s funeral in disguise and noticed Roman, his identical twin. He followed Roman to the group’s meeting spot and joined it by accident. Then, he kept lying to hide his overall neediness. However, there’s more to his misery than his solipsistic motives. He saw it as an opportunity to be with someone who looked exactly like the person he fell head over heels for. Still, it was also his way to work on his regrets while processing his grief. Upon meeting, he realized that Roman had similar fears of unwantedness and alienation.
How does Roman process his grief?
Roman was close to Rocky, but they didn’t have the finest relationship. He noticed everyone appreciating Rocky more, which made him feel unwanted for most of his life. That’s why he grew up introverted and relied on Rocky almost as his better half. So, the loss compels him to reevaluate his self-worth without Rocky. He finds it difficult to assess with the mother, who seems distant and unemotional compared to him. While it might be her way of dealing with emotions, it leaves him feeling lonelier. This makes Dennis seem like the warm presence he seeks when he is at his most vulnerable.
Dennis allows Roman to be comfortable pouring his heart without the fear of judgment. Roman opens up about feeling left behind by Rocky, who seemingly moved on with his better life away from their home. It shattered Roman and kept him in a shell, since he couldn’t find anyone he could rely on, as he had relied on Rocky. Despite this tender side of his emotions, Roman is also deeply in pain. He also shows willingness to beat the person who was partially responsible for Rocky’s accident, not knowing that it’s Dennis. As it happens, he and Dennis become close, almost like brothers. So, Dennis hooks him up with Marcie (Aisling Franciosi), while he hooks Dennis up with George, whom Dennis accidentally claimed to be attracted to.
Roman grows closer to Marcie, which makes Dennis feel left out. His neediness makes him impose himself on this new couple, who plan to spend Christmas at Roman’s family home. That’s when Marcie begins questioning details about Dennis’ life, and wonders whether he has a twin in the first place. When she goes out on a walk with Roman, Dennis goes through Rocky’s old stuff at his mother’s house. In a way, that is how he tries to hold on to a romance that never blossomed how he wanted it to and tries to get to know Rocky better.
Twinless (2025) Movie Ending Explained:
Does Roman learn the truth about Dennis?
Roman remains under the impression that Dennis is grieving Dean’s loss as he is grieving Rocky’s. Yet, he eventually learns the truth: Dennis doesn’t have a twin, and that he was dating Rocky before meeting him. Dennis blurts it all out one night at a hotel after getting close to Roman in a way he might have liked being with Rocky. It upsets Roman, who beats Dennis as he once said he would, and leaves the room. Dennis’ confession, however, is borne out of desperation after Marcie figures out his truth and feels obliged to reveal it to Roman. That’s why it stings him even more, since he may have ruined his bond with Roman and Marcie for good.
What happens to Roman and Dennis in the end?
After beating Dennis, Romairn leaves the hotel room and meets Marcie, who was ignoring his calls because of her guilt of withholding the truth. A while later, Dennis asks Roman to meet him. He shares some casual details about his life. He has been trying to acquire a real estate license instead of working on book covers, after getting fired. Soon, he addresses the elephant in the room, which leads them to speak about their own relationships with Rocky. Dennis reveals that Rocky called Roman ‘the good twin’, which makes him emotional.
By the film’s end, Roman wonders if he and Dennis would have been friends if they had met under different circumstances. Despite that thought, Roman remains guarded throughout this interaction and is ready to leave soon, unlike Dennis, who orders something to prolong their stay. Regardless, they get emotional thinking of Rocky, possibly wondering how they would have found ways to mend their bond with him if he had been alive. In the final moments, the waitress asks them about their order. They both say the same thing. While the conversation is rather simple, it is loaded with plenty of insights about the bond they built together, even if it was a result of Dennis’ lies.
The ending also invites a discussion about intention and consequence in general, and how they affect our perception of one’s actions. In this case, it begs us to consider whether the outcome of Dennis’s actions, which led to his strong bond with Roman, can be justified despite his past lack of honesty. At the same time, it shows how people can bond over their shared sorrows or joys in unexpected ways. At times, all it takes is someone to take a step in the right direction. After all, in the end, Dennis and Roman feel almost like soulmates, finding their missing halves in each other, even if their romantic or sexual expectations do not align.
Twinless (2025) Movie Themes Analyzed:
Grieving Process, Trauma-Bonding, and The Nature of Truth
“Twinless” offers a deeply humanistic exploration of grief, refusing to let any character be defined solely by how they appear on the surface. That’s why Lisa, whom Roman finds detached, is shown hiding her emotions to preserve her sanity in her own way. Roman, who doesn’t cry at the funeral, has a different way to deal with his mounting grief. That’s where Dennis offers him a chance to bond with someone like his late brother, while he offers Dennis a chance to do the same, although for a different reason.
They bond over their shared miseries, but the film doesn’t leave us with the cliches of trauma bonding. It shows them being messy and occasionally unlikable to reflect the messy nature of healing. To achieve this, the film presents all the events through their subjective realities to reveal how their emotional truth affects their overall perception of a situation or a person.
