Multiplicity (film)

Multiplicity
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Harold Ramis
Produced by	Trevor Albert Harold Ramis
Screenplay by	Chris Miller Mary Hale Harold Ramis Lowell Ganz Babaloo Mandel
Story by	Chris Miller (short story)
Starring	Michael Keaton Andie MacDowell
Music by	George Fenton
Cinematography	László Kovács
Edited by	Craig Herring Pembroke J. Herring
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release dates	July 17, 1996
Running time	117 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$45 million
Box office	$21,075,014

Multiplicity is a 1996 American science fiction comedy film starring Michael Keaton and Andie MacDowell. The film was co-produced and directed by Harold Ramis. The original music score was composed by George Fenton.

Plot

Doug Kinney (Michael Keaton) is a Los Angeles construction worker whose job is constantly getting in the way of his family. On one job to build a new wing of a scientific facility, Doug meets up with Dr. Leeds (Harris Yulin), a friendly scientist who has developed a successful method for cloning humans, and is introduced to Dr. Leeds' clone as proof. The scientist, who is sympathetic to Doug's troubles, allows Doug to make a clone of himself that can take over for him at work, while he tries to spend some quality time with his family. The clone, called "Two" (who calls himself Lance), has all of Doug's memories and knowledge, but is overly macho. Although the clone seems to be a dream come true, while taking his wife, Laura (Andie MacDowell), out to a restaurant for dinner, he finds that Two is on his own date. Doug realizes clones are not as great as they seem, and Doug begins to worry about his clone being revealed.

Eventually two more clones are made. "Three" (who calls himself Rico) is a sharp contrast to Lance, with an extremely sensitive and thoughtful personality. He is much like a housewife, knowing how to cook very well and take care of the house, much to Lance's chagrin. "Four" (who refers to Doug as Steve, and is later named Lenny) is cloned from Two/Lance as told by Rico, and has the mentality of an overly-curious child. Unfortunately, since he is a clone-of-a-clone, his IQ is considerably lower than that of his predecessors, and the personality defects are more pronounced when a clone is cloned (the analogy from the movie refers to how a copy of a copy may not be as 'sharp' as the original). This causes an annoyed Doug to decree that no more clones be created. One night, Doug leaves home for a sailing trip. While he is gone, each of the clones runs into Laura and each one sleeps with her. The next day, Lance comes down with a cold and is unable to go to work, so he sends Rico. During an inspection on site, Rico's lack of construction knowledge annoys and upset the inspector, which leads to him losing Doug's job.

As the movie progresses, Doug's wife becomes increasingly upset with her husband, as she is wondering about Doug's sudden personality changes and how Doug's clones have no memories of discussions Laura unwittingly had with another clone. Thinking Doug is ignoring her, she unknowingly pours her heart out to Lenny, mentioning how Doug has never kept his promise to fix up the house. When she asks him what he wants, an inattentive Lenny replies, "I want pizza". Upset, she takes the children to live with her parents. When Doug returns, he learns that Laura and the kids have left. He also learns from the clones' confessions that he has lost his job and each one of them has slept with Laura. Trying to figure out how to get Laura back, Lenny tells him about what she said to him on how he never fixed the house. With the help of the clones, Doug remodels the house and wins back the love of his wife. Doug also tells Laura he is planning to start his own construction business. Realizing Doug can take care of himself now, the three clones move away. At that point, Laura finally discovers the clones. Feeling like she is hallucinating, she tells her children that you can tell you really love someone when everyone you see reminds you of them. The clones write to Doug that they have set up a successful pizzeria called "Three Guys from Nowhere" in Miami, Florida. Lance becomes the businessman of the shop and serves customers, and also gets to meet lots of women. Rico is the head chef, and Lenny is the delivery boy as well as taking a second job as a paperboy (It is shown in the end of the film that he tosses a pizza box at a nearby house in the style of a paperboy throw).

Cast

Reception

The film was not a success at the box office, making back less than half of its $45 million budget. It received mixed to mostly negative reviews from critics, and currently has a 44% "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.^[1][2][3]

DVD

The film was first released to DVD on April 15, 1998, shortly after the format debuted; the Columbia/Tri-Star release was a single disc release featuring the ability to watch the film either in widescreen or in fullscreen but not featuring any bonus materials. Since then, a new Columbia/Sony release has replaced it, offering only a Pan & Scan (1.33 aspect ratio) format. Widescreen support is still available on Region 2 editions of the movie.

Multiplicity was released in widescreen on DVD by Umbrella Entertainment in May 2012. The DVD is compatible with region code 4 and includes special features such as the theatrical trailer and crew biographies.^[4]

References

External links

• Multiplicity at the Internet Movie Database
• Multiplicity at AllMovie
• Multiplicity at Box Office Mojo
• Multiplicity at Rotten Tomatoes