The Change Up is an exercise in opposites. Dave (Bateman) is an overworked lawyer and family man, while his best friend Mitch (Reynolds) is a slacker actor. While peeing in a fountain and envying each others' lives, they accidentally switch bodies and must go about as the other until they can figure out how to reverse the switch.
Ryan Reynolds should do more comedy. He's hilarious whether as Mitch who has no responsibilities and nothing expected of him or as Dave, a very successful lawyer in the middle of the most important week of his career hoping that his nincompoop best friend – now inhabiting his body – doesn't mess up his job and his already rocky marriage. His [removed]as Dave) when surveying the squalor that is Mitch's apartment is priceless; especially when he gets a look at the fridge.
A lot of the humour comes from Mitch's ineptitude with Dave's young daughter, Cara, and his baby twins. While Dave is the image of the perfect father, Mitch hasn't the slightest clue what to do with kids, which results in some pretty hilarious hi-jinks. Mitch pours milk on the twins, leaves them unattended next to knives and electric sockets and teaches Cara to always solve her problems with violence, which manifests itself as a pretty epic judo flip in the middle of a ballet recital. Bateman does a great job portraying both characters, but it's when he goes so thoroughly against his type as man-child Mitch that he's at his funniest.
As a rule, The Change Up isn't mean or malicious. While Mitch is rather ridiculously sexist, his behaviour is never allowed to slide. You're not laughing with the sexist jerk, you're laughing at the depth of his misogyny. In addition, Dave's wife Jamie (Mann) is portrayed in a surprisingly sympathetic manner when she could have very easily been written off as the nagging wife. Mann does a great job merging the emotional and the comedic, and she ends up being the film's heart. Jamie's married to a man who, although perfect on paper, is never satisfied. She barely sees him because he's so caught up with his work and while she knows that he loves her and that he's fully committed to the family, she doesn't feel it because he's hardly ever around.
By the end, both men have realized that neither of their lives are as perfect as they made them out to be and are fully ready get their own lives back on track again. While The Change Up is pretty formulaic (It's basically Freaky Friday for dudes) and you can tell exactly what's going to happen from a mile away, it's funny and light and never grates on.
About the AuthorStaff Writer for Cairo 360
Original article on:Cairo360
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