Mum's Monday: Twins

This is a unique, original film that, depending on how you see it, shows the ups and downs, pros and cons of experimenting with humans in science – a deep topic that’s dealt with by a light-hearted story. Or, you could see it as just another film with a unique premise that has gathered a strong following over the years from fans of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito alike.

A group of scientists and a woman who is willing to carry the baby, start the process of creating the perfect person in a lab on an island. He, Julius Benedict (Arnold Schwarzenegger) would turn out to be strong, athletic, book educated. Unfortunately, because of this he hasn’t got much worldly knowledge.

The pivotal moment of the film is when Julius finds out that he has a twin. As is cleverly portrayed in the film there is no such thing as the perfect person, so when they created Julius the bad side of a person split and created Vincent. Julius on finding all this out rows off to find him, believing his twin needs help and he is right.

Whereas Julius has been bought up on the island and led a narrow existence, his twin, Vincent (Danny Devito) was let loose into the big wide world to fend for himself and has gotten himself into trouble.  I don’t think this was fair, they should have kept the twins together, experiment or no experiment, but the cold hard facts is they wanted the perfect baby so there was no room for a second one, and there wouldn’t have been a film.

Vincent on finding out the origin of his birth and finding out he is essentially genetic garbage is sad to watch and his reaction is well acted.

This film is a unique portrayal of nurture versus nature. This is a question of whether someone does something because it is in their nature or reacting to what they have experienced around them. Julius has been modelled along the way where Vincent hasn’t had the same guidance. We cannot say for sure because of their origin, but it does make me think.

Julius and Vincent set out to find their mother, Mary Ann (Bonnie Bartlett) or in this case the woman who was willing to carry the experiment. Throughout this film they have been consistent with the cold hard experiment thread running through it all in amongst Julius helping Vincent out of his bad situation. It takes a while for the mother to realise that she has maternal instincts and the two men are her sons. The part where she says she can’t tell them apart is acted and sounds unnatural, but it does clarify the two men are twins after all.

There are three story lines to this film: the experiment and finding their mother, Vincent having a girlfriend, Linda Mason (Chloe Webb) and he is in trouble and having men are after him as he owes money, and Julius learning how the outside world works on a natural level and realising not everything can be gained from a book. It all clicks together perfectly like a well-oiled machine. You don’t get confused on what’s happening, you can simply enjoy the film.

A person has to have some book knowledge and some natural knowledge to succeed and be the best they can be. This film wanted to create that perfect human being, and by the end of this film after Julius had learnt a little of the outside world, you could say they pretty much nailed it, or you could say that they haven’t come anywhere close to creating that perfect person.

Twins is one of those films that doesn’t make you have to think, but if you want to, it does have a strong topic for plenty of discussion. It doesn’t force you to see the many layers underneath, just lets you see them if you want to, and that’s what makes this film a classic for me.