The Change-Up

The title of The Change-Up is somewhat ironic, considering the familiarity of everything from its stars to its basic premise.

It’s about two best friends who switch bodies and the ensuing mayhem and desperate attempts to switch back, which is a well-worn comedic concept in Hollywood. And it features Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds, two of the more ubiquitous stars in this summer’s blockbusters.

Still, once you accept the film as a low-brow knockoff that will inevitably run out of gas, it sets the bar low and hits accordingly with several big laughs, especially in the first half.

Bateman plays Dave, a successful law associate with a wife (Leslie Mann) and infant twins. Reynolds is his longtime buddy Mitch, who lives a carefree life of sex and booze. Each envies the other, something that is put to the test following a night at a bar when they simultaneously urinate into an apparently magical fountain. When they wake up the next morning, they have switched bodies.

Their wish turns sour when Mitch (in Dave’s body) must navigate his way through a critical corporate merger that is vital to Dave’s career, and also must juggle his family responsibilities. Meanwhile, Dave (in Mitch’s body) is tempted by a young co-worker (Olivia Wilde) and forced to confront Mitch’s estranged father (Alan Arkin). It isn’t long before the pair is scrambling to find the same fountain (which was conveniently moved by the city) so they can reverse the spell before their lives are ruined.

The Change-Up is directed by David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers) from a script by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore (The Hangover), so it comes from a successful pedigree in terms of raunchy Hollywood comedies.

Bateman (Horrible Bosses) and Reynolds (Green Lantern) achieve a decent frat-house chemistry, with Bateman as the straitlaced father to Reynolds’ arrested adolescent. And the switch is pulled off without a major loss of credibility on either side.

The film struggles in the final few reels, however, when it tries to become heartfelt. That might not be a problem if the premise wasn’t so silly, but it hardly achieves any sort of emotional resonance in its attempts to smooth out Dave’s marriage and reform Mitch’s party-hearty ways.

By exchanging broad laughs for forced sentimentality, the real change-up in The Change-Up almost winds up ruining the movie.

Rated R, 112 minutes.