The Change-Up
After years of safe, PG-13 comedies, Hollywood has hit the R-rated well for what seems like the 4,000th time this summer with “The Change-Up.” The premise is old as time: two people switch bodies, and see how others see them through fresh eyes. What is new in this spin on the story is a raunchy soul that goes places no previous incarnation, from “Freaky Friday” to “Big” to “Vice Versa,” has boldly gone. With strong work by Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds as the childhood friends who switch bodies and lives, the results are quite hilarious, but ultimately unsatisfying.
What? How? But the script is by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, who scripted the 2009 blockbuster “The Hangover,” and the director is David Dobkin, who had helmed the 2005 comedy smash, “Wedding Crashers?” For me, the excessive raunch of the film failed keep me entertained. Make no mistake, I’m not against raunch, of course (I love “Hangover,” the works of Kevin Smith, and “The 40-Year-Old-Virgin”), but it just doesn’t fit with the story being told; as with 2008’s “Step Brothers,” the extra vulgarity adds next to nothing to the story beyond putting the characters, and audience members, into rather uncomfortable scenarios that sometimes go against their basic principles. And come on, are we to really believe that, even after Bateman and Reynolds have tried to talk to her about the predicament, Bateman’s wife (played by the superb comedic actress, Leslie Mann) would doubt the idea when her “husband” is behaving completely out of character? It doesn’t really jibe, and though the actors are game for the outrageous scenarios their characters go through, and the film is very funny, but it lacks the genuine heart of “Virgin” and other raunchy films with more on their mind than grossing the audience out.
