Films don’t have to be understood in order to be liked by the audience and praised by the critics. The author of this review experienced this phenomenon first when watching two critics discussing Trading Places, 1983 comedy directed by John Landis, at Yugoslav television. One of the critics lauded the film, but admitted that he hadn’t comprehend the final scene dealing with market speculation at mercantile exchange. This wasn’t that surprising, because Yugoslavia was Communist country with limitations on private property and people generally unfamiliar with certain complex mechanisms of free market capitalism. Decades later it turned out that even people who had been living under capitalism their whole lives still had trouble properly understanding of that film and had to rely to long articles explaining what had been going on.
The main motive in the script by Timothy Harris and Herschel Weingrod is the class division, often seen as one of the main features of capitalism. The plot is set in Philadelphia and the protagonists are two men that, while living in that city, belong to separate worlds. Billy Ray Valentine (played by Eddie Murphy) is black street beggar and petty conman. Louis Winthorp III (played by Dan Aykroyd) is aristocratic WASP who enjoys privileged lifestyle due to his successful work as commodity trader. Lives of those men accidentally intersect in the incident during which Valentine is mistaken for street mugger and arrested. The incident was witnessed by brothers Randolph (played by Ralph Bellamy) and Mortimer Duke (played by Don Ameche), owners of Winthorp’s firm who are constantly debating whether someone’s success is result of nature or nurture. They decide to test their claims by using their wealth and influence in order to make those two men switch places. Valentine is bailed out of prison and given Winthorp’s home, butler and his old position in Duke’s firm, where he, despite the lack of education and experience, proves to be shrewd market operator. Winthorp is, on the other hand, framed for theft and drug possession after which he loses his elite club membership, credit cards, home, fiance and last vestiges of dignity. Forced to live on the street, he receives aid from kind-hearted street prostitute Ophelia (played by Jamie Lee Curtis). He plans revenge against Valentine, whom he sees as the source of his trouble, but Valentine soon realises that both men are manipulated by Dukes and in the end becomes Winthorp’s ally. Two men decide to combine their skills in order to beat the brothers in their own game and use complicated commodity market scheme to deprive them of their money.
Trading Places was huge success at the box office and today enjoys reputation of a comedy classic. Some critics like to explain that by describing it as an attack on neoliberal policies of Reagan’s America which led to widening of the gap between the rich and poor. In reality, Trading Places is hardly anti-capitalist film. On the contrary, it celebrates main tenets of American Dream, as well as individualism and free enterprise; all characters in the film are entrepreneurs or investors and the protagonists use the system not only to exact revenge but also to get filthy rich by themselves. The script in many ways owes less to early 1980s socioeconomic situation in United States and more to classic stories like Twain’s novel The Prince and the Pauper and populist comedies of Classic Hollywood. The difference from the latter is, however, very visible due to director John Landis applying laxer censorship standards in order to provide film with “saucy” language and some nudity.
The main asset of the film is the cast. Two main actors made brilliant performances and in many ways owe their careers to Trading Places. Eddie Murphy, who improvised most of his lines, became one of the greatest Hollywood stars of his time and one of America’s most popular comedians for next few decades. Dan Aykroyd with his, equally impressive, performance finally left the shadow of The Blues Brothers and established himself as one of the more recognisable faces in Hollywood. Those performances were well-matched by supporting players like Denholm Elliott in the role of the butler. Veterans Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche delivered strong performances as film’s arrogant but memorable villains. Jamie Lee Curtis used her potentially dangerous role of stereotypical prostitute with a heart of gold to show that she can handle genre different from horror; her performance, which also featured few topless scenes, is one of the most memorable and arguably the most popular of her career.
Landis as director did very good job and has put locations in Philadelphia – city that symbolises American history and values – to good use. Composer Elmer Bernstein provided and interesting score inspired by classic music. However, Trading Places is far from perfect. Film has some problems with the pacing, especially in the middle, while the scenes near the ending, which feature protagonists suddenly discovering talent from playing people of different ethnicities and one of Duke’s henchmen (played by Paul Gleason) being presumably raped by gorilla, are a little bit too silly. Trading Places is nevertheless a very entertaining film that would be enjoyed even by people who still have problems comprehending market manipulations.
RATING: 7/10 (++)
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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1621-trading-places Critic: AA
