The Change-Up Review

• 9th Jan 2012

Let me get this out there nice and early – I love Ryan Reynolds. He can do no wrong in my eyes. (I even forgave him for the ridiculous, ill fated marriage he had with Scarlett Johansson). So, when I was presented with, what can only be described as Freaky Friday for grown ups, I thought “this could be fun” and when you throw in my girl crush on Olivia Wilde I was more than happy. How wrong could I be?

The answer is very! That is almost two hours of my life I will never get back and, if I’m honest, Ryan and Olivia are going to have to work hard to get back on my good side after this monstrosity.

Just in case you’re unfamiliar with the whole premise, here’s a quick run down.

Dave Lockwood (Jason Bateman) is a high achieving, over worked, father of three that has a tendency to put work before his family, much to the chagrin of his beautiful wife (Leslie Mann). Mitch Planko (Reynolds) is his layabout, pot smoking, promiscuous actor best friend. One night they go drinking and end up discussing their lives and how jealous they are of each other. On the way back to the car, they stop to pee in a fountain, suddenly there’s a citywide blackout and, yep you’ve guessed it, the following morning they wake up in each others bodies! Much hilarity ensures (at least it should) while they navigate the major minefields of critical moments in each others lives. Pulling through for each other, learning a few home truths along the way, makes our two protagonists realise their own lives aren’t so bad after all. Only, oops the fountain they need to wee in to return to their original bodies has been relocated to the centre of a shopping centre.

The body switch movie is a tried and tested method of providing the audience with a bit of comic adventure tied up neatly with a moral message. Freaky Friday, Big and 17 Again all proved, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it… sadly, this is what Jon Lucas and Scott Moore (The Hangover) tried to do. Yes, it follows the same simple premise of the average body switch but the added toilet humour, excessive swearing and gratuitous titty shots really do nothing to help buoy this film along. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no prude, I’m far from easily offended and I find dick and fart jokes hilarious but they grew tiresome and fell flat early on in this feature. When the opening scene features a baby projectile pooing into his father’s face and mouth; it sets the tone from the off.

There’s not a whole lot more left to say about this film; disappointing, flat and not very funny, unless maybe you’re a teenage boy, or have the sense of humour of one.

I’m off to watch Van Wilder and The O.C. just so this isn’t the last thing I saw with Reynolds and Wilde in!

Laura Johnson