Multiplicity

Doug Kinney (Keaton) is running out of time. He's working all hours, barely sees the kids, and now wife Laura (MacDowell) wants to split domestic duties so she can return to her career. It seems too good to be true, then, when genetic scientist Dr Leeds (Yulin) offers to double Doug's capacity by making a clone, a facsimile identical in appearance and experience. Safely housed away above the garage, Doug 2 can handle business, while the original devotes himself to quality time with the family and the pursuit of happiness. Not quite a Groundhog Day replica, but a near-relative none the less, this is a mid-life crisis comedy about masculinity, mortality and the roads not taken. The development is funny and smart. Doug 2 has a mind of his own, and a libido, so he's soon dating his (their) secretary, eyeing the wife, and cloning himself for some additional home help. If Doug 2 embodies the original's repressed machismo, Doug 3 is his feminine side, swapping cooking tips with the bewildered, uncomprehending Laura. With the inevitable, infantile Doug 4 - a failed experiment, a third-generation copy - the movie comes close to genuinely anarchic subversion, even daring triple adultery in one night of passion. Unfortunately, in trying to rein in the material and impose some kind of closure, the film-makers plump for an inadequate, bourgeois sit-com mode and the movie evaporates before your eyes. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted, and hats off to Michael Keaton, Michael Keaton, Michael Keaton and - very funny in a supporting turn - Michael Keaton.