Review of The Change-Up (2011) by Emily Y — 05 Oct 2012

Really raunchy with some laughs, but altogether quite stupid and formulaic. The married man (Bateman) is a workaholic and because he excels at his job, his home life suffers. Meanwhile, the single guy (Reynolds)'s life seems much better because he is basically unemployed and has no commitments or responsibilities.

I also thought it was kind of sexist, as male-driven comedies are, because they seemed to belittle the problems of Bateman's character's wife. She was portrayed as ditzy, nattering and nagging. At one point Reynolds said, "can you shut that off?" while referring to Bateman's wife and her incessant chatter.

The opening scenes portray marriage and fatherhood as something really stressful and horrible although there is no mention of the wife's struggle as a mother, which is equally stressful.

It didn't help that Leslie Mann's acting was reminiscent of Sarah Jessica Parker's.

A guy comedy for dumb guys.