The Change-Up Review
There are moments in The Change-Up that are very clever and funny, and then there is the moments when you have to wonder if they were just seeing what they could get away with and still get an R rating. Imagine for a moment that you are at a party and someone is telling you a joke, and then some buffoon jumps in and tells the punchline in the most vulgar way possible, ruining both the joke and your appetite for the evening. If you can imagine that scenario then you can imagine just how this movie makes you feel.
The plot of The Change-Up is a simple retread of the Freaky Friday story. In it two characters, who usually don't understand one another, flip flop bodies through some unknown magic and have to live trapped in the body of the other. Usually in these movies the trick is to learn about the other person, to gain an understanding of what it is like to literally walk a mile in their shoes, before you are allowed to return to your own body. The thing that separates The Change-Up from other movies of its kind is that in this movie, both characters know exactly what kind of guy the other is.
It is not often that you see protagonists in a comedy act like such stereotypical douche bags, that it makes you dislike the entire movie. Jason Bateman plays Dave, a family man with a wife and three kids. Dave is mostly an absentee father however because he is also a workaholic lawyer. Dave has a big merger coming up and the switch couldn't have come at a worse time. Ryan Reynolds plays Mitch, a semi employed, actor/stoner who only works at scoring chicks, and who's taste in women is questionable to say the least. Mitch has just scored a major role in a new movie and the switch could not have come at a worse time for him as well.
When the two switch bodies there is the traditional hijinks that accompany movies like this. Mitch impersonating Dave at a business meeting, Dave impersonating Mitch on the movie set. There are also scenes where the philandering Mitch attempts to sleep with Dave's wife, while across town Dave struggles with the morality of cheating on his wife while inside Mitch's body. Like all traditional body swapping comedies, there is the moment of clarity when the other character realizes that everyone's got problems and yours are probably just as bad as mine. The Change-Up however decided to go a more selfish route, Mitch and Dave discover that other people don't like them very much, and who could blame them. Both guys are really miserable characters, albeit for different reasons. In the end it is up to them to stop being jerks and start being better people.
As I stated before this movie is beyond vulgar. I appreciate vulgarity, I even find it amusing often. Ever since the Hangover, people in hollywood are constantly trying to one up the raunch quota. They should instead focus on making a funny movie first. The Change-Up is another example of taking vulgarity too far. It often goes well past the point of being humorous, and while it doesn't ever cross the line of offensive it sometimes cuts it close. Whether it is projectile fecal matter, very public urination, or even three guys staring into a woman's crotch, the movie takes things just a bit too far. You start to laugh but then are immediately taken out of the mood because it becomes repellent.
Overall the movie is regrettably just another rehash of a well worn subject. Yes it takes it to a more adult level, but much if not all of the crude humor could have been replaced and been just as good, if not funnier. Part of me feels like the creators of the movie had a great outline for a script and just got lazy with the writing and figured that they could fill the remaining holes in the movie with really dirty jokes.
