The Change-Up (2011) Reviews

I wasn’t really expecting much from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, eventually, it turned out to so much worse than I expected. Seriously, pretty much nothing worked with this movie. First of all, I want to point out that the body-swap thing is one of the worst gimmicks out there, it almost never works, and this movie must be the worst I have seen in this genre. I mean, in the very first scene, you get to see a CGI baby ass literally shitting in Jason Bateman’s mouth, so, right from the start, the whole thing seemed to be pretty much hopeless and it never got better. Indeed, the concept was just really moronic and never really entertaining. Furthermore, even though Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman are usually pretty funny, in this movie, neither of them was actually entertaining whatsoever.  To make things worse, I don’t think that either of them played both characters really convincingly. Finally, the last drop was the fact you didnt even get to see Leslie Mann and Olivia Wilde in their full glory, instead, you get to see some body-double with some CGI which was rather disappointing. Anyway, to conclude, I was rather amazed about how bad the whole thing was and I don’t think it is worth a look at all. 

DETAILS
Release Date: Aug 05, 2011;
Rated: R;
Length: 112 Minutes;
Genre: Comedy;
With: Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds, Leslie Mann, Olivia Wilde;
Distributor: Universal Picture
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Reviewed by Lisa Schwarzbaum | Aug 04, 2011

For a comedy like The Change-Up — which is to say, a comedy with a message about as deep as a bowl of beer nuts — familiarity with Shakespeare's disguise plays and Aesop's Fables isn't a prerequisite for getting the picture. On the other hand, familiarity with both body-switch comedies and Judd Apatow laffers is indispensable for understanding just where this raunchy Apatow imitation with a heart of Lipitor goes wrong.

The anatomy swappers here are Mitch (Ryan Reynolds), a swingin', irresponsible single guy, and Dave (Jason Bateman), a driven lawyer/husband/dad. The switcheroo goes down because the two buddies-since-childhood do something stupid during a Guys' Night Out in their hometown of Atlanta: They pee in a fountain. Specifically, they pee in a fountain presided over by a stony statue of the Greek goddess Metis while drunkenly declaring to each other, ''I wish I had your life!'' (For the record, Metis is the goddess of counsel, advice, planning, and cunning.) Dave thinks he envies Mitch's life of free sex and fiscal irresponsibility. Mitch, a wannabe actor, thinks he envies Dave's successful career, his loving home life, and his cute wife (Leslie Mann). Crash, lightning, temporary power outage, Freaky Friday! The deal is done. The next day each guy wakes up in the body of the other. Discovery of genital distinctions follows.

Here's The Change-Up's first mistake: As set up by director David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers) and writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore (The Hangover), the game is rigged. Dave may be burned-out, so much so that he has stopped appreciating his squeaky Leslie Mann of a wife. He may even feel a pang or two of extramarital lust at the sight of his beautiful law associate Sabrina — as played by Olivia Wilde, who wouldn't? But no one would envy Mitch's directionless, idiotic Peter Pan life — even if Peter entertains the ladies in a playpen of an apartment. The early Mitch is so excessively unsocialized and unlikable (I blame the script and direction rather than Reynolds' game performance) that there's no contest: Dave may need a little kick in the khakis to realize that he's got it pretty good at home, but he's clearly the movie's winner.

In fact, early Mitch is so obnoxious that in the end, when the two friends regain their own bodies, having learned lessons in gratitude (oops, did I give something away?), Dave is more or less Dave again. But Mitch 2.0 bears little resemblance to early Mitch. He's still Ryan Reynolds-y, but he's now someone a lot more like Dave — reformed by the traditional values The Change-Up endorses — than like a guy who previously kept a weekly sex date with a lady he described as a tigress.

I won't give away more about the tigress in question; let's just say she bounces and veers from Hangover turf into Farrelly brothers territory. And she also personifies The Change-Up's second mistake: The movie's scenes of id-fueled transgression are alternately desperate, trite, and an off-putting color of ugly — as if the filmmakers were given the ingredients but not the cooking instructions for a successful crude-but-cuddly frittata. Gross-outs involving poop — kids of all ages usually love 'em! — are more humiliating than hilarious. (Really, the old toxic-baby-diaper gag?) Freakish-looking women are easy receptacles for disgust. And when jokes give way to the ''I love you, bro!'' finale, the tone oozes past charming happiness all the way to cloying self-satisfaction.

Anyway! There's one consolation, and that's in watching the stars play opposite what is 
 often their type of guy. Bateman, in particular, is enjoyably nimble and unbuttoned when he sheds his usual persona of responsible-and-exasperated guy and lets some devil out. Quick-witted and a pro at physical shifts, he finds more subtleties in his Dave Gone Wild than actually appear in his dialogue. And that resourcefulness rubs off on Reynolds, a pleasant if less complex performer. Acting here as if he were a vaguely disgruntled but resigned grown-up, Reynolds gets to escape the tonal confines of his boyish smile. Too bad The Change-Up has little use for such interestingness. Soon enough it's back to stale jokes about spousal date nights, the sight of moldy fast-food leftovers in a bachelor's refrigerator, and the timeless male joys of sharing a whiz in an outdoor fountain after a night of drinking and bulls---. C

The Change-Up is an apparent attempt on the part of screenwriters Jon Lucas and Scott Moore to reinvent body-switching movies for today's audiences. While 2009's 17 Again used a similar type of concept to make a generic contemporary family flick, The Change-Up was crafted with R-rated sensibilities in mind, meaning profanity, un-PC humour and gross-out gags. In other words, The Change-Up is geared towards the Hangover crowd, which is hardly surprising since writers Lucas and Moore were also responsible for writing 2009's The Hangover. It's a shame, though, that the writers didn't shake up the formula while they were at it, as the film adheres to the same old tired template we've seen hundreds of times before. But credit where credit is due - The Change-Up is pretty damn funny if crass humour is your thing.

Married, career-minded lawyer Dave Lockwood (Bateman) is on the brink of making partner at the firm where he works. But Dave's family life is less promising, with a new set of twins driving him positively insane. To let off some steam, Dave agrees to a drunk night out with his stoner pal Mitch (Reynolds), a struggling actor who's out of work more often than not. While taking a piss in a mysterious park fountain together, Dave and Mitch simultaneously verbalise that they wish they had each other's life. Waking up the following morning, the men find that their wish has been granted: they've switched bodies. This compels the boys to search for a fast solution, but, unfortunately, the fountain is out of commission because the city plans to relocate it. Consequently, Dave and Mitch have no choice but to pose as each other until they find out the fountain's new location.

Summer 2011 also saw the release of such R-rated comedies as Bridesmaids and Horrible Bosses, the former of which benefitted from immense emotional maturity while the latter was surprisingly original. The Change-Up, on the other hand, is a different specimen (though it shares Horrible Bosses cast member Jason Bateman). The premise, as previously stated, is incredibly hackneyed, while the attempts at maturity and all of the blatant character revelations seem eye-rollingly forced and perfunctory, not to mention obvious. (Gee, do you think Dave will learn the value of marriage and realise he should be happy with what he has? And that Mitch will realise the futility of his immoral womanising lifestyle?) One imagines that a darker treatment of the same premise could have gone further and been more satisfying. After all, it is R-rated and moderately low budget, so would some boldness be too much to ask for? Additionally, in a baffling creative decision, The Change-Up's nudity is computer-generated. Indeed, you don't see the breasts of either Leslie Mann or (the scorching hot) Olivia Wilde - you just see digitally-created boobs on each actress. Now smutty comedies are denying us the authentic nudity that we crave? I miss the '80s...

While its plotting is stiff, the first half of The Change-Up is beset with hilarity - character hijinks are often uproarious, and hilarious dialogue abounds. The humour is not of the smart or witty variety, but there's a good chance you'll get at least a few satisfying belly-laughs out of the movie if you're a fan of comedies of this ilk. Director David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers) appears to have a good sense of comedic timing, resulting in a handful of perfectly-executed humorous sequences that had this reviewer in fits of laughter. Unfortunately, however, the film does slow down in its second half, and the final act is interminably long as every aspect of Mitch and Dave's epiphanies is pointlessly underlined. The Change-Up clocks in at a bewildering two hours, but comedies of this nature should be shorter and brisker.

Jason Bateman has never been looser than he is in this film. While the role of Dave is just a simple variation of Bateman's habitual screen persona, his overzealous antics and constant swearing are side-splitting when he becomes Mitch. It's also a testament to Bateman's skill as a performer that he manages to keep both roles likeable no matter what he does. Ryan Reynolds, meanwhile, is similarly terrific, showing that his dismal work in Green Lantern was just a one-off tragedy. The greatest measure of the success of stars in a body-swap comedy is how believably each actor embodies the persona of the other. Bateman and Reynolds are not perfect in this respect, but their work is nevertheless strong. Meanwhile, the remainder of the cast is pretty standard stuff; easily passable for this sort of comedy, but nothing to write home about.

The Change-Up's script leaves a bit to be desired since it unnecessarily drags out the thin premise and contains too much filler, though it's laudable that writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore at least tried to imbue the characters with some depth. But analysis like this is probably superfluous for what's just a lightweight mainstream comedy for the masses. The fact remains that if you like R-rated romps (like The Hangover), you will probably have a good time with this movie.

6.0/10