The body swap is a pretty creaky plot device. If you're going to drag it out of mothballs, you better have a new spin to put on it. The gimmick here that is supposed to make it fresh is that it's rated-R. At least that's what I've heard several of the cast members say in interviews. It's not enough though to really make it very original, it just allows it to be a bit more shocking, which it uses as a prop to support the jokes.
Bateman plays Dave, a successful attorney and family man who is about to be made partner at his firm. Mitch, played by Reynolds, is an old friend of Dave who works at being an "actor" but seems to spend most of his time fucking around and not doing much of anything that might contain a whiff of responsibility about it. After one drunken night together they end up pissing in a fountain together while simultaneously wishing that they had each other's lives. Sure enough, the very next morning, Mitch wakes up in in Dave's bed, next to Dave's wife, inside Dave's body, while Dave wakes up in Mitch's bachelor pad, inside Mitch's body. To be fair, some hilarity is to be found as a result - mainly due to the chemistry between Bateman and Reynolds - but not as much as I was hoping for.
Too many jokes rely on shock value to make you laugh. You know what you're getting right from the opening scene where Dave gets pooped on by one his babies and the poop goes straight into his mouth. Later, Dave, inside Mitch's body, gets a late night booty call, but when the woman drops her overcoat to reveal she's almost naked underneath, you see that she's 9 months pregnant and to top it off you can see the baby move inside her stomach.
Although it's silly to expect any kind of realism from this movie, would Dave really send Mitch into his office to work on the most important deal of his career? Wouldn't it have been much safer for him to fake an illness? I mean, when Mitch does go in, he behaves so out of character that I'd think that his bosses would seriously want to have him examined by a doctor.
Apparently there is not only a shortage of story ideas in Hollywood, but also a shortage of actors to chose from as they keep reusing the same ones this year. This marks Bateman's third movie of 2011, following Paul and Horrible Bosses. Reynolds has already appeared in Green Lantern. And Olivia Wilde just appeared in last week's Cowboys and Aliens. This is the hardest working cast in Hollywood right now.
During a recent interview, Olivia Wilde mentioned how her brief nipple slip in this movie was created by CGI. She wore pasties during filming, but they added nipples in post-production. Leslie Mann and Mircea Monroe also show their breasts, but, although I don't have any proof, they too look faked. This is a worrying trend. I mean, if you can't trust that you've just seen some actresses' tits, what can you trust in this world? It also makes me wonder why they didn't CGI some penises onto Bateman and Reynolds for the peeing scene since the two of them do the least convincing urination seen on film.
The movie tries to throw some life lessons into the mix as both Dave and Mitch learn some things about themselves. Dave's wife tells him things about their marriage while she thinks he's Mitch and Mitch's Dad tell's Mitch things while he thinks he's Dave. It kind of works, but is also at odds with the gross out humor. It's difficult to be heart warming and push the envelope of good taste.
In baseball, a change-up is an off-speed pitch that is meant to fool the batter into thinking it's a fastball. It's a subtle pitch, which is the exact opposite of this movie. It's easy to see where it's going and how it will end. For the most part, it's a fairly entertaining ride, but not a perfect one. I didn't hate The Change-Up, but I sure didn't love it either.
