Film review: The Change Up - out of body experience

Ryan Reynold’s fails to shine as brightly as he did in The Propsoal.

Although Ryan Reynolds has been around for a while, he only truly demonstrated he had superstar potential in 2009’s hit comedy The Proposal. After that, all eyes were on the man who also happened to have bagged Scarlet Johansson — no mean feat for even the biggest Hollywood headliners. Reynolds seems to have it all: the looks of a leading man and the hot bod that most twenty-something dudes crave, but he hasn’t had a big box office hit since his turn with Sandra Bullock. So what happened?

Movies like The Change Up are what happened.

Funny as he is, Reynolds isn’t helping his cause by choosing to star in ho-hum comedies like this one. If you’re ever seen films like Freaky Friday where bizarre body-switching scenarios are the main plot movers, you’ll know what you’re in for with The Change Up: two best friends, Mitch (played by Reynolds) and Dave (Jason Bateman of “Arrested Development” fame), have to deal with each other’s extremely different lives for a few days when a charm worked by a magic fountain switches their bodies around.

Dave is a devoted dad of three who also has a high-powered job at a top law firm. Mitch is a slacker, a total bum who eschews responsibility in favour of random hook-ups with women and an extremely dubious acting career. Now when roles are reversed, Mitch-as-Dave has to figure out how to parent a toddler and twins while he juggles a rocky relationship with his ‘new wife’ and navigates the intricacies of a large legal deal. Dave-as-Mitch gets the long end of the stick: he gets to take a break from his daddying days and generally loafs off.

Inevitably, of course, both parties realise that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. But will they manage to get back to their real lives before Mitch-as-Dave ruins the real Dave’s career and marriage forever? Will Dave-as-Mitch start enjoying his carefree existence so much that he won’t want to give it up?

While the film does have its moments, it is entirely too predictable to become one of those classic comedies you keep on the shelf for low moments.

Though this should be Reynold’s film, he fails to shine as brightly as he did in The Propsoal. Who knows, maybe he just needs a really charismatic leading lady to set him off. But I fear that if he doesn’t start choosing his films better, we may never find out.

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, October 30^th, 2011.