TWINS

US, 1988, 105 minutes, Colour.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny de Vito, Kelly Preston, Chloe Webb, Bonnie Bartlett, David Caruso, Nehemiah Persoff, Hugh O’Brian?.
Directed by Ivan Reitman.

Twins is the result of a comic imaginative brainwave. What if Danny de Vito and Arnold Schwarzenegger were to star together - as identical twins?

On the whole the filn works quite well and is popular comedy. It takes note of genetic engineering - and the possibilities of things going wrong: the perfect specimen segregated from society and looked after by scientists, deceiving parents as well as brothers - and the other brother considered a reject. While the film emphasises comedy, there is a critique of aspects of genetic engineering. In fact, the film gets sentimental as the two brothers go on a quest to find their mother.

Danny de Vito does a variation on his small sleazy type theme (Ruthless People, Ronancing the Stone, Throw Momma from the Train). Arnold Schwarzennegger portrays the perfect specimen innocent - arriving in Los Angeles like an alien or Crocodile Dundee in New York. He shows a pleasant sense of humour that is only glimpsed in his action films.

Direction is by Ivan Reitman: Stripes, Legal Eagles, the Ghostbuster movies.

1. The idea for a comedy? Good idea? How well did it work?

2. The opening with the U.S. of the '50s, and the U.S. of the '80s?

3. Los Angeles, the American cities, New Mexico, Texas? The musical score and the songs? The mood?

4. Presuppositions in the audience about genetic engineering and experiments? Morality? heartless attitudes of scientists? rather and children?

5. The human repercussions for people?

6. The narrative voice-over about what happened: the choosing of the mother, the fathers, the genetic perfection, the visuals of the twins heing born and growing up, the taller and the shorter? The laughter but the consequences of their separation?

7. The deception for each of the brothers and the father, the results as they grew up? Their anger at the chief scientist?

8. Arnold Schwarzenegger as Julius: perfect specimen, on the island, completely isolated? His being told the story, his wanting to go to America, rowing away? His first plane flight and singing with the rock and roll music? His awkward clothes? Wandering Los Angeles and encountering criminals with innocence? Going to the jail and discovering Vincent, the interpretation of their situation and of Vincent's reaction? Getting him out and being ditched by Vincent? Encountering the thugs and arguing with logic, resisting violence but using it when necessary, saving Vincent? Learning how to drive the car and enjoying it? Going to the supermarket, meeting the girls? Ditched by Vincent again? His hopes to find their mother, the decision to go to New Mexico? The drive and their adventures? The girlfriend, the hotel, the sexual encounter and his smile? The finding of the professor and the laboratories, the confrontation, the truth? Going to find their mother, the encounter with the artist and the commune, her telling them the mother was dead? Their sense of failure? Vincent taking off, Julius with his intuitions about Vincent's plight, going by plane, taking the car (and giving restitution)? Stalking the criminal, saying Vincent? Meeting their mother, the reward of honesty in returning the money? nice and naive?

9. The contrast with Vincent and Danny de Vito's style: his cars, his debts, his girlfriend? Going to jail for the fines? The encounter with Julius and thinking he was just out of gaol and ditching him? The criminals pursuing him, saving bin? The meeting of the girls in the supermarket? The robbery, getting Vincent? The stealing of the car, the tape about Houston? The plan, going to travel? Forced to go with Julius and the girls? Mexico, his disbelief, the laboratories and the truth? Their going to find their father, his talking about his real self and sensing? The failure about their sister, his driving to Houston, the money, the deaths of the bosses? His being stalked by the killer, saved by Julius? His greed for money - and his delight about the $5,200,000, the irony of his keeping $I,000, though honest?

10. The girls and their work, confronting the thugs, their exasperation, being on the trip, their relationships with the brothers, sexuality? The narrations and their having tuins?

11. The thugs and their pursuit, comic criminals, victimising by Julius? chief thug and his job? Shooting the car-owners, stalking Vincent? His being scotheres?

12. Mother and her art, memories of the past, being deceived, reaction to the two men, the final reconciliation?

13. The sketch of the scientists, in themselves, the critique of their work and their dishonesty? American style comedy, laughs, rood, characters and issues?