Released back in 1996 "Multiplicity" is a Michael Keaton vehicle directed by Harold Ramis, and with those two names you would have expected that this could be a good comedy. Sadly it's only half a comedy and for the rest of the movie it uneasily struggles between family drama and mild humour. Its saving grace comes from Michael Keaton who does a marvellous job of delivering a varied set of performances in his multiple roles, providing the source of what little entertainment there is.

With the pressure of work and family responsibilities construction boss Doug Kinney (Michael Keaton - Beetlejuice) is feeling stressed out and needs a miracle to help him get through. The miracle comes in the form of scientist Dr. Owen Leeds (Harris Yulin - Murder at 1600) who offers him the chance of cloning so that whilst his clone deals with work Doug can deal with the family, except it's never going to be that easy is it.

Despite being a technically flawed storyline, the actual idea behind "Multiplicity" is actually quite appealing, well at least for me as I could foresee various funny scenes which could occur thanks to the various clones and to give it credit some of the scenes happen. The trouble is that it takes so long for "Multiplicity" to really go anywhere that you can quickly lose interest and the opening scenes which attempt to build up the storyline of Doug struggling to keep on top of his work and family duties are pretty boring. Despite attempts to perk up these opening scenes with a little humour it never really works making it feel a little like a lack lustre family drama, an uneasy one at that thanks to the misplaced humour.

It takes so long for "Multiplicity" to get going that when the comedy element does fully kick in it feels quite strange in contrast to the start of the movie. Thankfully the comedy on its own does work and we get various predictable, yet enjoyable scenes as confusion bounds between the various versions of Doug. It's certainly not clever comedy and many of the elements can be easily predicted but what makes it funnier is the personas of the clones, from the butch No. 1 through to the slightly camp No. 2 and the whacky No.3. This is why I say Keaton does a marvellous job as each one of these is brilliantly portrayed in a caricature sense that works.

Of course whilst all this drama and comedy is going on, often in a very uneven blend, "Multiplicity" actually spoils things further by trying to deliver a message about the importance of life and family. Now don't get me wrong, messages are usually a good addition to many movies but here the delivery of it is like an in your face after thought where the writers have suddenly tried to give the movie some sort of deeper meaning. It really doesn't need it or at least not one which is thrown at you towards the end of the movie in such an obvious manner.

Although for me "Multiplicity" is really a throw away comedy it is good that the effects when it comes to the various versions on Doug work seamlessly. In those scenes where various combinations of Doug appear together the editing is first rate and doesn't show the flaws of when characters walk in front of each other.

What is for certain is that "Multiplicity" despite a couple of supporting performances is a Michael Keaton vehicle through and through. The strange thing is that although I think the balance and pacing of the movie is pretty poor I have to say Keaton's performance throughout is pretty decent. In those early scenes he is more than believable as the stressed out Doug but is even better when it comes to the comedy side of the movie and playing the various versions of Doug. You can't but help love when the camp version of Doug is in a scene especially when he is forced to attend the construction site.

As for those supporting performances well there are only two worth mentioning the first of which is that by Andie McDowell as Doug's wife Laura. I don't know what it is about McDowell but quite often in comedies her performance comes across quite weak, trading on her beauty rather than he ability to be funny, which is the case here which in itself is not a terrible thing but the character could have done with being stronger. The only other supporting performance, or as it should be known here is supporting appearance, worth mentioning comes from the wonderful Eugene Levy as a cement specialist. Levy is such a great comic talent as shown in the "American Pie" movies but here he is given less than a couple of minutes of screen time and seriously underused.

What this all boils down to is that "Multiplicity" whilst being quite a good idea for a movie ends up failing to work due to the uneven balance of drama and comedy. It's all out of odds with itself and takes so long to really get going that it is easy to get bored of it. Its saving grace comes from the performance of Michael Keaton who is a riot playing several versions of the same characters.