Yes, we've seen lots of body swap films before: between mother and daughter, father and son, adult man and is boyhood self, even Buffy the Vampire Slayer switched bodies with her enemy on one TV episode. So, how to make it fresh, how to add something new? Make it raunchy! Mitch (Reynolds) and Dave (Bateman) have been friends since elementary school, and though they have maintained their friendship, their lives have taken very different paths. Mitch hardly works at all, lives in a bachelor studio, disappoints his father (Alan Arkin), and enjoys lots of sex and drugs. To some, this life might seem ideal. Whereas, Dave is about to be made partner in a prestigious law firm, he has a beautiful wife and three great children all of whom he dearly loves and lives with in an expansive home. He has everything he always wanted and worked for. But one drunken evening when they both urinate into a fountain overseen by a nameless stone goddess and they happen to say in unison 'I wish I had your life,' they cause a short-lived blackout, lightening strikes, and they switch bodies (or souls, depending on how you look at it.
Now, the raunch. You have never before and hopefully will never again see a baby diaper changing scene like this one again. Explicit? Well, yes. Another example: Dave stands in for Mitch in his latest 'acting' gig. Just guess. How about Mitch's Tuesday night lover dropping by for servicing which might be surprise enough for Dave, but there's another piece of her anatomy Dave (now inside Mitch) is completely shocked by. There is so much hard core cursing throughout, much in scenes with children, that I wondered how the filmmakers deafened these underage characters. And though all this raunch did appeal to my lowest self, I couldn't applaud a scene in which twin infants seemed to be put in extreme jeopardy. A jokes a joke, but fingers in a blender and other kitchen hi jinks isn't.
Once the audience adjusted to the raunch level (language, bodily functions and sexual situations), the writers and director move on to the crux of all body-switch films -- to appreciate the other's life and learn from it, becoming better people in the process. Perhaps the turn of attitudes was a bit simplistic, moralistic and predictable, but fun nonetheless -- mostly due to Reynolds and Bateman's high personality quotient. I just like watching these guys: Bateman, the everyman we can all relate to; Reynolds, the unassuming unegotistical hunk.
The Change-Up
Director: David Dobkin
Writer: Jon Lucas, Scott Moore
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Jason Bateman, Leslie Mann, Olivia Wilde, Alan Arkin, Mircea Monroe
Rating: R
Opening on August 5 at the AMC Metreon, AMC Van Ness and Marina Theatre in San Francisco
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