Theoretically, a clone is exactly the same as the original, retaining all the original's memory and experience until the moment of separation. At that point, only the experience of the clone begins to make him different. Two, as Doug's clone is called, is assigned Doug's work life, and he throws himself into it completely. He kicks ass at work because he has no other life--he has to stay hidden away in the garage so that Doug's wife Laura (played by Andie MacDowell) doesn't suspect anything. Two becomes a friendless, beer drinking slob who tries to put the make on his secretary. Meanwhile, the original Doug still isn't satisfied with taking care of the kids and being a househusband.

The most interesting thing about Two's new life is that it could easily have been Doug's own. But the film starts to get off track with the entrance of clone Three, who is created to take over Doug's domestic chores so that Doug can finally go to basketball games and play golf. Instead of undergoing the semi-gradual process that made Two into a workaholic, though, Three seems to spring full blown from Doug with all the qualities of Martha Stewart, John Bradshaw and Julia Child rolled into one. Keaton plays it for all the gender stereotyped laughs he can get--Three minces and fusses over housework like an impossibly wimpy priss. By the time the mentally-unhinged clone Four is made, it's all played strictly for laughs. Easy joke scenes of "which-clone-is-which?" proliferate.

Michael Keaton deserves credit for giving each clone its own distinct personality, and the photography of the clones interacting is virtually flawless. But the movie ends so predictably--Doug realizes his mistake when the clones get out of hand, driving away his wife and getting him fired from his job. The more obvious point is hardly even addressed: The clones, while copies of Doug, are not him, and Doug loses out on the experiences of home and work that he used to enjoy. The clones aren't really satisfied either, having to obsessively work on individual aspects of Doug's life with nothing to balance them out. Instead of addressing these issues, the film starts to seem like a cheesy sit-com called "Those Darn Clones!"