“The Change-Up” has many of the things I look for in a blockbuster comedy: Jokes involving poop, pee, genitals, breasts and sex, plus copious dropping of f-bombs at important corporate meetings and in front of babies. Also, I’m always up for a good body-swapping comedy, and Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds seem like good casting choices — both are known for specific character types, yet they are also decent actors who should have fun playing against type.
“The Change-Up” peppers in a lot of solid gags. We get Mitch-in-Dave’s-body (Bateman) picking up Dave’s babies by the scruff of their shirts, telling Dave’s daughter that violence solves everything, being underdressed and uncouth at Dave’s corporate law job and not knowing how to work the pneumatic chair. And we get Dave-in-Mitch’s body (Reynolds) being horrified of what he has to do sexually in order to maintain Mitch’s working life as a “lorno” (light porno) actor and his wild relationship with a sex kitten with a surprising secret.
But beyond the laughs, the film doesn’t quite sell its premise.
It’s not a minor problem that it came out a week after “Crazy, Stupid, Love.,” which also showed the contrast between a married man (Steve Carell) and a single guy (Ryan Gosling). While that movie’s characters had layers, Mitch the Single Guy (Reynolds) and Dave the Married Guy (Bateman) are broadly drawn even by summer-movie standards. Mitch is a pot-smoking, day-acting bachelor with lots of free time; Dave is a workaholic corporate lawyer with a wife and three kids that he doesn’t see enough — and he sees his best friend Mitch even less often.
The buddies drunkenly pee into a magic fountain and simultaneously say “I wish I had your life,” but in fact, their lifestyles (Married or Single) aren’t the problem at all; the problem is their personality traits. For example, Mitch is estranged from his dad (Alan Arkin), but how is being single to blame for that? If anything, being single should give him more time to bond with his dad. The real problems here are that Dave is a workaholic and Mitch is lazy; but the movie insists on pushing a Married vs. Single conflict that doesn’t ring true, even if it is a good set-up for chuckles.
The actors-playing-each-other isn’t the home run I thought it would be. Body switches work best when the viewer is very familiar with the personalities and mannerisms of the characters, like when Sarah Michelle Gellar and Eliza Dushku brilliantly swapped roles on a Season 4 “Buffy” episode, or when noted scenery chewers John Travolta and Nicolas Cage did the ol’ switcheroo in “Face/Off.” Here, I never really felt that Reynolds channeled Bateman or vice versa, although I did buy into Dave and Mitch’s friendship, which somewhat makes up for that flaw.
“The Change-Up” doesn’t have a lot of depth in its bullpen, thus putting all the pressure on the two leads. Olivia Wilde is ridiculously attractive as Dave’s assistant Sabrina, but she gets no character arc, nor does Leslie Mann as the wife who feels like Dave is drifting away from her.
I’m left with the feeling that “The Change-Up” isn’t as good as it could’ve been. I know I’d like it more if I hadn’t just seen “Crazy, Stupid, Love.,” and despite its obvious faults, there’s too much good stuff here to totally dismiss it. Bateman and Reynolds are easy to watch (as are Wilde and Mann, even if they’re given short shrift) and you’ll find a lot to laugh about — unless for some reason you don’t find propulsive infant excrement or testicles that feel like a can of tennis balls to be funny.
But if that’s the case, I’m not sure why you bother going to mainstream summer comedies anymore.