So the basic idea fot this movie is that there's this guy Damien who's a total ladies man, works at some advertising agency, treats women pretty badly basically, and then something happens.. he hits his head on a pole and he wakes up in this parallel world where it's women who are in charge of everything and men are the ones getting treated bad and there's this woman, Alex, played by Rosamund Pike, who's basically his equal but even more ruthless, and he has to go up against her. It's basically a gender flipping situation... like imagine if the whole world just swapped roles.
Honestly I went into this movie not expecting much, it's one of those Netflix originals that just kind of shows up on your homepage and you're scrolling and you're like eh why not. And I think that's actually the right way to go into it, because if you go in expecting some genius comedy you're gonna be a little let down.
The first like 20-30 minutes are honestly pretty funny. Watching the world flipped upside down, seeing Sacha Baron Cohen's character get treated the way women normally get treated in these kinds of workplace movies, that part lands pretty good. There's some cringe worthy moments but in a good way, like you're laughing because it's uncomfortable. But then after a while I did notice the joke sort of just repeats itself over and over. Like they found one good idea and then just kept doing variations of the same joke instead of building on it. By the middle of the movie it started feeling a bit repetitive to me, not gonna lie.
Sacha Baron Cohen is honestly pretty good in it, he's got that comedic timing thing going, and Rosamund Pike is really solid too, she plays tough and unbothered really well. The chemistry between them is decent, not amazing, but it works well enough to carry you through the movie.
The story itself though is pretty predictable. You basically know from like the first 15 minutes how it's gonna end. Guy is bad, guy goes through some humbling experience, guy learns his lesson, guy becomes better person, maybe gets the girl at the end. It's the classic "reformed jerk" story that we've all seen a hundred times, just with this gender swapped world dressing on top of it. I wasn't expecting some deep message but I did feel like it kind of played it safe with the lesson, like they had this whole interesting concept and then didn't really push it as far as they could have.
Visually it's nothing special either, it's got that typical Netflix movie look, kind of flat, bright lighting, nothing that really sticks with you after... It doesn't the big movie feel, it feels more like something you'd put on in the background and I think the concept probably deserved a bit more visual creativity.
I saw some people online saying it's kind of shallow with the message... people felt it didn't really say anything new about gender roles and just used the flip as a gimmick without really exploring it deeply and honestly I kind of agree with that a little.... It's not like it's offensive or anything but it's just... safe.... Like it wants to make a point but doesn't really commit hard enough to it.
That said, I still had an alright time watching it. It's short, only like an hour and a half, so it doesn't overstay its welcome. It's got a few genuinely funny scenes, the two leads are likeable, and if you're just looking for something easy to watch on a lazy evening with no expectations, it does the job fine.
Would I recommend it? Kind of, but with lowered expectations. It's not a movie I'd tell people they have to see, but if it's already on your Netflix homepage and you got nothing else in mind, it's a decent way to kill an evening. Just don't expect it to be some clever commentary on gender, because honestly it plays it more safe than smart.
Rating: 70/100