Confusingly, The Change-Up fluctuates between a decently acted film that boarders on endearing, and the dumbest, trope and cliché-ridden film that I’ve seen in a while. Granted, I’ve avoided watching anything Happy Madison-related, but I can’t imagine that they would fall far below the bar set by this most recent film that tackles “the grass is always greener” theme.
Most often, the CGI’d occurrences of an infant boy banging his head repeatedly and cartoonishly against its crib, a twin baby girl squeezing the baby powder bottle with so much force that it resembles a Howitzer annihilating its target, the same baby girl throwing knives as if she were an Apache in John Wayne western, and the frenetic opening and closing of an infant’s anus as he prepared to project excrement into his father’s face would give me plenty of cause to burn my retinas and chalk this up as one of the worst things I’ve seen, but there’s something that saves this movie from being a total and utter cesspool replete with clichés – barely.
The clichés are blatant, and the film – to its credit or detriment (more on that in a minute) – doesn’t try to hide them. In fact, the first ten minutes exposit nearly every cliché that can be crammed into one hundred minutes: “the thirty-year-old child,” “the father’s disapproval of aforementioned thirty-year-old-child,” “the overworking father whose job has dominated his life,” the subsequent “unfulfilled wife and mother of three children,” the “father who wishes his life were like the thirty-year-old child,” and the “mystical swap of one man’s life for another.” As any churned out script from a Screenwriting 101 class will, the final two clichés are saved for the last ten minutes: the penultimate “catharsis by experiencing someone else’s freedoms / responsibilities,” and the ultimate “epiphanal moments that remind each character why he had originally chosen his former life.”
So, what saves this film?
Simply, its utter ridiculousness and similarly blatant lifting of these tropes from films that were originally in the “swapping bodies / I wish my life were different” genre. A la Trading Places, the wealthy, successful Dave Lockwood is paired against the philandering, sloppy, baby-food eating Mitch Planko. Moreover, both men – like Louis Winthrope and Billy Ray Valentine ultimately work together to teach the other how to be successful. For all four characters, the initially devastating change becomes a lesson in self-recognition.
A la Big, both Dave and Mitch wish they “had [each other’s] life” by standing in front of an ambiguous face that can simultaneously mysterious, angelic, and deceitful. Truthfully, there are two starker homages to Big. First, with Dave’s insistence that he wants “to go home” while he’s with Sabrina McArdle (Olivia Wilde), a potential love interest, much like Josh Baskin’s (Tom Hanks) Susan (Elizabeth Perkins). Secondly with the parallel between the fountain and Voltar Machine, both of which have been removed the day after the fateful micturition / coin deposit.
What’s slightly refreshing about The Change-Up – despite its often regurgitated ideas – is that it takes these tropes, shakes them up, chugs them, and chases them with numerous shots of tequila. Does this make a better movie? Not necessarily, but it takes the often sterile approach to this cosmic situation and turns it on its head. Granted, Trading Spaces had a momentarily nude Jamie Leigh Curtis, but she wasn’t a nine-month pregnant sex maniac with a PhD in the Kama Sutra. Likewise, the conundrum of whether or not Dave and Mitch should have sex with each other’s partners is tackled, but the illusion of forbidden fruit rapidly moves from intriguing past fetid to rotten. And despite the film’s tendency to exaggerate gross-out humor to elicit a laugh – which rarely succeeds in these moments – the story’s narrative stay’s cohesive. Mitch’s verbal dysentery impedes both his and Dave’s progress, and Dave’s timidity all but snuffs Mitch’s future transgressions.
The true saving grace of this film is the acting, particularly after the switch. Prior to this, Dave is a bit too exaggerated, even for a perpetual adolescent – so much so that it’s hardly believable that a grown man who smokes pot all day, has a penchant for baby food, swears in front of children continuously, and has no tact could a) sleep with half of the women he claims to, or b) could live on his own without a hefty trust fund. However, this overacting serves to highlight the respective talents of Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds (did I really just write that?).
Seriously though: after the switch, Jason Bateman as Dave successfully adopts Mitch’s mannerisms and hyperbolic inflections. While initially annoying when coming out of Mitch’s mouth, it’s quite a treat to see it successfully mirrored by another actor. Similarly, Ryan Reynolds as Mitch adopts Dave’s dry sarcasm and tempers his previously jittery movements.
Above all, Leslie Mann is the top performer as Dave’s wife, Jamie. She delivers her lines sincerely and with the honesty of a mother and wife at the end of her rope – as one who has tried to stay as close to a man who seemingly wants nothing to do with her or her children. Unfortunately, a number of her lines delivered during the most endearing moments are interrupted by attempts at comic relief that come across as more forced and immature than anything we might use to assuage emotional pain. However, Mann pushes through these grasps and pulls the audience back to her plight. She’s also the most likable character – and the one who evokes the most sympathy – in that, as opposed to Dave, Jamie is unable to switch places with anyone. So, as she treads water, trying to keep her head afloat in a sinking relationship, we see the abject isolation that Dave has created by, ironically, trying to do more for his family than his parents were able to do for theirs.
And perhaps what The Change-Up accomplishes is illustrating the abject loneliness that lies behind the front of happiness and solidarity that we erect in an age when “happiness” has become the ultimate goal. Now, I’m not trying to suggest that “happiness” is old hat or something unachievable. Rather, perhaps happiness should not be the goal, but the byproduct of the way in which a life is lived. I think this is seen most clearly through Dave, who is a sincere, hardworking individual whose generosity at work and desire to provide his family with the best life money can buy has occluded the beautiful life he has in front of him.
In the end, The Change-Up has its moments, and between those moments are handfuls of campy schlock that make it difficult to determine whether this film is a parody, a tribute, or a squirt of CGI’d excrement.
