Movie Review: Multiplicity (1996)

The movie stars Michael Keaton, Andie MacDowell, Zack Duhame, Harris Yulin and Eugene Levy.

I had to run a couple errands yesterday morning and, when I got home, my wife (who was sick on the couch) was watching this film. I had heard of this movie but had not actually seen it before so, even though I missed the first couple minutes of it, I took the time to watch it with her. As it turns out, it was a much funnier movie than I was expecting it to be.

I have always been impressed with the wide variety of characters Michael Keaton has played in his career and this movie does a great job of showing off his skills as an actor. While each of his three clones is a replica in appearance, their personalities all differ. And, because of that, he has to provide them (and the original) with their own specific traits and even voices. To be perfectly honest with you, despite what I said before about being impressed with his range, this did surprise me.

In fact, the clones’ personalities themselves were fun to watch. When I started watching this, I figured they would be almost robot-like and just follow orders. Instead, they each had their own opinions and made their own decisions, both good and bad.  This did make the movie much more entertaining to watch as a result of that because it wasn’t as predictable as I thought it was going to be, partly because he couldn’t simply get rid of his clones since they were all individuals rather than exact copies.

I think the thing that helped this movie considerably though was MacDowell’s supporting role as his wife. The various clones are funny. But, what makes them funny is the fact she doesn’t notice even something as blatant as her husband suddenly wearing different clothes or the one clone, Lenny, talking like he’s a toddler. And, while she does, eventually, start suspecting something, those are the kind of details that should have hinted it wasn’t just a mid-life crisis.

This is an older film but still a good one, both because of Michael Keaton and Andie MacDowell’s performance and because of a well-written script that wasn’t as predictable as it had the potential to be. If you have never seen this film, I do recommend taking the time to watch it at least once.

My Grade: A