Don't Go Changing

I just saw The Change-Up at a sub-run theatre.  It's not worth it at any price.  The film is as bad as the critics suggest and though the cast is charming they can't stop it from being a flop.

There are a lot of things wrong with it (like the disgusting baby poo jokes they hit you with just as you're sitting down with your popcorn), but I'd like to concentrate on one aspect.  This is one of those body-switching films--a tired concept, but an easy opportunity for comedy writers to have fun.  The trouble is, as with so many such films, as soon as the characters switch bodies, they seem to leave their brains behind.

In The Change-Up, Ryan Reynolds, the goofy slacker, is friends with Jason Bateman, the responsible family man. (See, they have important lessons they can learn from each other--one is too serious, the other doesn't take life seriously enough.  It's enough to keep you out of movie theatres just fearing you might walk into one showing this movie by mistake.)

Anyway, when they switch, Reynolds is told by Bateman that's he's been working on a big merger for months, so Reynolds (in Bateman's body) has to attend the meeting and not mess things up.  So what does Reynolds do?  He comes into the meeting wearing casual clothes, carrying a bunch of free food he grabbed from the firm's kitchen, screws around adjusting his chair and swears like a sailor.  Why is he acting like such a jerk, doing things he was specifically told not to do?

I can see how the writers figured they needed both guys to fail completely in their first day in new bodies just so they had somewhere to go, but it's still a mistake.  This is farce territory, of course, and there's always a temptation for writers to have everyone in a farce act like idiots, since that makes the twists and turns, not to mention the gags, easier to pull off.  But this temptation should be resisted.

In the late 80s there were a series of body-switching films--Like Father Like Son, Vice Versa, 18 Again and Big.  Only Big, the last one released, was a hit.  In the others, as soon as the switch occurs, the characters immediately act like fools, screwing around in their new bodies.  In Big, once the character realizes the situation he's in, he tries as hard as he can to solve it.

For both story and comedy purposes, it's much more satisfying to have characters working at the top of their intelligence, no matter how ridiculous the situation.  Then, whether they succeed or fail, it means a lot more, and the gags pay off better.