Body Swap
Pulling off a successful story where two characters switch bodies is not easy. How far do you go when it comes to letting the actors play up the humor of the situation? How do you find a way to ground it in emotion, and a certain degree of reality? There are plenty of films and TV shows that have done this type of this successfully, so to throw yourself into the fray is a dicey proposition- you better have something worthwhile to do with the concept. I’m not sure if “Body Swap” does, exactly, but I would say it does a good job of pulling it off.
The writer of this film, Jimmy Kustes, also stars as Casey, an unemployed guy who spends the day watching TV and playing video games while living with his brother, Roy (Gunner Willis). One day, he goes on a job interview at a company called Versa; he’s interviewed by CJ (Ella Jordan), a smart and determined young woman whose boss has just told her that he is counting on her to help with a coming merger with a Japanese company. The interview is a disaster, and Casey shows himself to not be a good interview, but it gets compounded when they find themselves holding on to a shredder at the point where a drink is spilled on it. From that moment on, their bodies swap, and they must live each other’s lives.
It’s easy to see why an actor would want to write this material for themselves- it gives you a chance to play two characters while inhabiting the same body. Yes, there are some easy jokes Kustes and director Timothy Morton go for, there are also some that they avoid, and that’s one of the reasons “Body Swap” is a successful example of the story concept. The thing I think I enjoyed the most about the performances by Kustes and Jordan is that they don’t necessarily take on specifically physical mannerisms, but they do make sure the personalities of the characters in those bodies comes through. When we first see them, they are together, on a couch, talking to an off-screen individual. This is a familiar trope, as well, and it’s a fun framing device to use to allow us to get the characters’s post-swap perspective on what happened. This movie is about giving us a full idea of who these characters are, what they went through, and what they got out of it on the other end in an entertaining way. “Body Swap” accomplishes what it set out to do.
When I viewed BODY SWAP at the Louisville International Film Festival, there was laughter from the audience all throughout the film. Tim Morton and Jimmy Kustes pulled off a huge upset by creating a film that seemed to appeal to people of every age and background.