I was on a Jason Bateman kick and I think I have finally seen all of the movies he is in on Netflix. Now I just have to finish Ozark which I think has become dreadfully boring and will fizzle out soon.
I like Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman a lot. I feel as though both of them are fantastic actors in multiple genres but they are likely most well-known for comedy and in The Change Up I think this is particularly evident.
The story is that two best friends who have known one another for their entire lives now find themselves in very different life situations. Dave (Jason Bateman) is a very successful lawyer who is extremely dedicated to his job, has a wife and 3 kids and is very busy with his family and professional obligations. Mitch (Ryan Reynolds) on the other hand is a bachelor that lives day-to-day, smokes weed constantly, and is basically a womanizer on the prowl.
When Dave hangs out with Mitch in a rare get-together Dave (again, Bateman) revels that he is incredibly jealous of Mitch’s carefree life and tell his pal that he would really love to be able to live in his shoes, even if just for a short time. After getting drunk and walking away from the bar they stop to piss in a fountain (wishing well?) and Dave once again states his desire to have Mitch’s life. At this point Mitch admits that he too is jealous of Dave’s professional success and also envies the fact that he has a loving wife and family. All the lights in the city turn off for a few minutes and some ominous music plays, indicating that some magic has happened.
The next day they wake up and realize that they have changed bodies with Mitch’s consciousness residing in Dave’s body and vice-versa. Hilarity ensues as each of them realize what has happened and they get together to go repeat the process with the fountain to reverse the “magic” only to discover that during the night, the statue has been moved.
I know this is impractical but the idea of magically switching bodies isn’t exactly something that would happen either. This is also an underlying story that has been done many times before (Freaky Friday anyone?) but yet, this somehow is a lot more interesting than other body-switching stories I have seen in the past.
[src](https://thepeoplesmovies.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/thechangeup-1.jpg) The reason why this is so funny and interesting to me is because we have certain nuances about Jason and Ryan that we expect of their acting styles. In The Change Up we get to see Jason and Ryan switch acting roles to behave like the other typically does in films and they both nail it. Bateman is all of a sudden brash and swears a lot with little regard paid to his statements and Reynolds is suddenly reserved, calm and thinks out his statements before he makes them.
This is fantastic not just because it is part of the story but because it shows that Bateman and Reynolds are pretty fantastic actors and I would be willing to bet that they had a lot of fun trying to emulate one anothers’ acting styles.
This film has comedy, a bit of action, and some pretty juvenile humor that I think would only appeal to people that appreciate that sort of thing. I feel as though if you enjoyed Happy Gilmore there is a very good chance you will enjoy this. Also, there are some very touching relationship moments in the film that kind of hit me right in the “feels.”
The movie made a reasonable profit at the box office but was nearly universally panned by critics both professional and in the general public in ranking sites such as Rotten Tomatoes. I disagree with this prevailing notion but yet again, it might have a lot to do with the fact that generally speaking I really enjoy Ryan Reynolds and especially Jason Bateman. The Telegraph rated it as one of the worst films of 2011 and I wholeheartedly disagree!
Should you watch it?
I think you should give it a try because even though it is pretty evident how the whole thing is going to play out the “role reversal” of Reynolds and Bateman is reason enough to enjoy this. However, there is nothing particularly noteworthy about the story. But it is a romantic comedy and very few of those deviate from a very formulaic plot. Basically, i feel that the critics are being snobbish when they say this is a terrible film as it is one of my favorite comedies that I have seen in the past few months.
