The Change-Up

Film making has a long tradition of having two completely different characters swapping bodies in a film to let the characters explore how the opposite type lives. This is the latest.

When I heard about the premise of this film I was not terribly impressed. To me these guys are virtually the same. When you do a body swap comedy you need to have two characters that are vastly different so as to make the comedy work better. I don't think a single guy and a married guy are that different to make the comedy work. The only real difference I can see is that one swears more than the other. The way they swap is pretty lame as well. Pissing into a magic fountain just brings up too many questions for me. Which brings me to the comedy style. It is unnecessarily gross. Films like 'The Hangover' have the gross humour but they are able to cleverly weave it into the story so that it does not seem obvious. It feels like it was added on and so does not suit the story. Writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore also wrote 'The Hangover' so you would think they would know how to write that style better. Dave Dobkin, as well, managed to work it into the film better when he directed 'Wedding Crashers'. I must admit though that there were a few sweet moments in the film which came across nicely in amongst all the silly moments. It is just a pity that these moments could not mesh with the rest of the film.

For me Jason Bateman is one of the best comedy actors working today. I love his dry sense of humour. He is good here but as mentioned above the material lets him down. The same is said for Ryan Reynolds. He does a decent job but can't work past the lame comedy. Leslie Mann does get decent mileage out of a pretty thankless role. The women in the film don't seem to fair well except to be put down by men. It is nice to see Olivia Wilde do a comedy.

The success of 'The Hangover' films has proven there is a market for more adult gross-out humour. But it needs to be better integrated in to the script so it does not seem as obvious. And if your going to swap bodies make the characters more different.