Warning: This review contains spoilers.
From there the film presents a dramatic prologue, set in 1986, in which the heroine, Adelaide (played effectively by newcomer Madison Curry), gets separated from her parents at a beachfront carnival in Santa Cruz, California. Adelaide wanders near the ocean, then comes upon a fun house. Inside, she explores the hall of mirrors and encounters another little girl who looks exactly like herself. (Peele creates a nice surprise by making the stranger appear to be a reflection at first; some people in the audience when I saw the film jumped when the stranger turned around.) It’s an affecting moment that taps into the fear that a person may not have agency over their identity—that someone can be him- or herself and also a stranger. Peele leaves it up to the viewer to decide how this ties into the fears introduced in the other two framing devices, letting the ambiguity get under one’s skin.
Directed by Jordan Peele. R, 116 min. In wide release.
