TWINS 1988
44%
Directed by Ivan Reitman
Written by William Davies, William Osborne, Timothy Harris, Herschel Weingrod
Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito, Kelly Preston, Chloe Webb, Marshall Bell
Synopsis
Two fraternal twins are separated at birth; one of them grows up to lead a life of petty crime, while the other becomes a physical and intellectual prodigy. When the latter learns of his brother’s existence, he journeys to Los Angeles to find him and, together, search for their mother.
Why We Love It
Twins is one of those comedies whose primary conceit is readily apparent in the poster: a stalky, balding Danny DeVito leans against a towering, upright Arnold Schwarzenegger, both of them sporting identical suits, shades, and smiles. It’s an effective visual gag that writes itself, so to speak, and absent any other compelling angles, it easily could have made Twins feel like a feature-length Saturday Night Live sketch (we’re looking at you, It’s Pat).To be fair, that’s exactly how a lot of critics felt about the film, but this is no one-trick pony.
By the time he joined Twins, Schwarzenegger had already established himself as an action icon in movies like Conan the Barbarian, The Terminator, Commando, and Predator, and he channeled that same charisma into what was to become the first of several successful starring roles in comedies. As Julius, the guileless brother raised on a remote island, Schwarzenegger adds a layer of fish-out-of-water naivete that works fairly consistently in conjunction with the street smarts of DeVito’s Vincent and registers some of the film’s biggest laughs. He readily accepts that Vincent is his twin brother, takes everyone’s word at face value, and oh, by the way, he’s also a thirty-five-year-old virgin. DeVito is perfectly cast as the cynical foil to Julius’s wide-eyed wonder, but that’s kind of what he’s known for. Schwarzenegger’s rock-solid comedic timing is a revelation, even if some of the jokes don’t fully land.
Aside from the chemistry between the film’s leading odd couple, Twins is also surprisingly heartfelt for a high-concept caper. Vincent’s initial distrust of Julius and eventual redemption are fairly paint-by-numbers, but damned if it isn’t sweet to watch how they gradually come to rely on each other. And when a missed connection with their birth mother is revealed, it’s impossible not to feel their loss.
Ivan Reitman, one of Hollywood’s preeminent comedy directors at the time, was still riding high off the success of Ghostbusters when he took on Twins, and it’s hard to imagine there was any expectation that the latter would be as well received. The film brushes up against some high-falutin’ ideas about eugenics and nature versus nurture without really exploring any of them, and it features a misguided subplot involving a stolen car with a trunk full of valuable contraband. But Twins proved to be an enjoyable diversion that made Arnold Schwarzenegger a bankable comedy star, and he and Reitman would go on to make two more together, Kindergarten Cop and Junior.