Laughter doubles in Ramis' 'Multiplicity'

By Dini S. Djalal

JAKARTA (JP): Claiming to be the place where dreams come true, Hollywood has always loved making the impossible possible.

Hollywood knows people watch movies to escape their dreary lives, so mainstream cinema's favorite films, whether comedy or drama, show the average Joe's (or Jane's) flight through ever more fantastic settings. Think E.T., think Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

But escape is not just about beaming into outer space. The Back to the Future and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure series offered audiences different dimensions of time: the past, the future, anything but the present.

Groundhog Day, directed by veteran comedian Harold Ramis of National Lampoon fame, proposes a similarly impossible premise, but with a twist. In this comedy, stone-faced Bill Murray copes with living the present over and over and over again. The joke is watching him stumble through inconceivable situations.

In his new film, Multiplicity, Ramis again postulates the comic potential of double trouble. But now the quandary isn't multiple realities, but multiple personalities. Can't get enough work done at the office? Get your double to put in some overtime. Don't see enough of the wife and kids? Have another clone bake her bread and teach the kids new yo-yo tricks.

Shirking responsibilities and escaping reality is the film's key allure, and dilemma. Michael Keaton, once a great comedian (see Night Shift) before stepping into Batman's cape, is Doug Kinney, the overworked contractor in need of a golf game. Doug's problems don't end at work -- he also has to deal with a family demanding quality time and a wife who wants to go back to work.

So what's a well-meaning but fed-up guy to do? Have himself xeroxed not once, but twice, by a wacky geneticist (Harris Yulin) who specializes in "making time". Soon, Doug's doubles are leading his life so well for him that Doug has little to do but sit and watch his life pass by. In simplifying his life, Doug nearly loses it altogether.

Letting chaos loose on four versions of one funny man is clever, albeit logistically implausible. Multiplicity is fun if you want to have fun with it. But don't expect the plotline to be of sturdy thread. Suspension of disbelief is key in sitting through this two-hour collection of slapstick skits.

For example, many scenes start with one Doug, end with another, and then start with yet another Doug. However, there's only one Laura (Doug's wife, played by Andie MacDowell). Laura's one of those women who seem to exist only on-screen: she's the pinnacle of femininity and sensitivity, while being a successful real estate agent and wonderful homemaker too! But if Laura's so smart, how can she not see that her husband switches his clothes from one minute to another, even while they're in bed? Doug no.1 takes over from Doug no.3 after a day of sailing -- can't Laura at least smell the sea, if not the sweat, on her husband?

Slapstick

Perhaps these are anal retentive remarks given the light- hearted nature of the film. And everything about the film is light, from the Kinney's cereal-box-decorated home to Laura's ethereal fluttering of her hands to Keaton's offhand way of calling his wife Babe.

Even the humor is light: a rubbery face here, a slapstick stumble there, and wisecracks everywhere. The brilliant Keaton gets away with even his most predictable gags -- his great comic timing and low-key delivery keeps you from wringing your hands.

Keaton's interactions with his clones are so convincing that you start believing that there are four actors on-screen instead of one. Shot with stand-ins by a computerized motion control camera, the scenes required extensive planning and execution (in order to have a completely controlled environment, the bulk of the film was shot in a studio, with every scene story-boarded). That Keaton was able to successfully play four very different personalities (alternating the pitch of his voice, as well as his posture and hand mannerisms) in isolation and with each other, proves his undertapped skills as an actor.

Unfortunately, the roles Keaton plays are stereotypes. There's Doug (no.1) the funny family man, Doug (no.2) the workaholic He- man, Doug (no.3) the home-decorating (wo)man, and Doug (no.4) the intellectually-challenged half-man. The souffle-baking Julia- Child-idolizing Doug no.3 is the most fun to watch, but the drooling Doug no.4 is a complete waste of screen time.

Otherwise, it's an amusing film, and not without the now- ubiquitous public service announcement about good, middle- American family values. But though the film clearly praises the sanctity of the nuclear family, it also illustrates the complexities of keeping the family together.

For example, seeing his wife's need for a career, Doug no.1 offers a role reversal. Soon he's cutting plastic wrap with a chain saw and going crazy with all the housework. When he asks his wife to switch roles again, Laura answers, "I've been doing that for 10 years and you've only been doing it for a month". In a rare show of aggression, Laura refuses to quit her job.

But the oddly feminist message does not end there. By the end, Doug explains to Laura that their gender-assigned predicaments are not all that different, and that both men and women find it difficult to juggle work and family. "You want to be a mom but also be completely independent," says Doug to a confused Laura. Doug can sympathize with Laura's need for her own life, as he's just spent the whole film trying to escape his.

That's about as insidious as the film gets. The rest is plain Hollywood fare. That means a predictable climax complete with a music video sequence and sentimental dialog, offering simple solutions to life's not-so-simple problems. The ending solves little, but at least they have a nicer house to do the home- making in. Multiplicity, on-screen and off, offers a short-lived escape from adult life, until the warm fuzz of domesticity (at least on-screen) hovers again.