Review of Trading Places (1983) by Catherine S — 11 Oct 2013

Trading Places is a film that I would consider maybe not the funniest, but definitely one of the best put together comedies I've seen in a long time, with tight writing, memorable and likeable characters, strong performances from all of its actors, and a twist on a familiar story that not only is original but also clever.

The film focuses on two characters on opposite ends of the social spectrum: Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Aykroyd) is an affluent business man who lives in a large house and works for the respectable Duke & Duke company, and Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphey), a conman living on the streets. When the Duke brothers (Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche) place a bet on whether a man's actions are determined by their environment or their background, Winthorpe and Valentine's lives are flipped upsidedown, with Winthorpe being framed for multiple crimes and thrown out onto the street and Valentine being given a high paying job.

I would give more of the plot, but I don't want to spoil it since this movie is so good. As you might've guessed, this film is an (admittedly) loose adaptation of "The Prince and the Pauper", but it's a very good adaptation. It updates the story as well as gives it a twist that makes it much smarter. It changes from a story of "just wanting to see what that guy's life is", to a real contemplation on how a person's personality would change depending on their circumstances, especially in such a rapid change as the one Winthorpe and Valentine went through. All the actors do an amazing job, with Dan Aykroyd giving a fantastic performance both comedically and dramatically, and Eddie Murphy gives an equally amazing performance, playing a convincing conman and a convincing business executive. The side characters also all do fantastically, with Jamie Lee Curtis especially turning in a nicely done performance.

Where the film's strengths lie, however, is in its writing and its characters. When I see films nowadays (or heck, even in the era that Trading Places was released in), especially comedies, it feels like the writers think they need to give characters extreme personalities to make them funny. If the character is supposed to be an affluent business man, they make him extremely stuck up and snobby, even though we're supposed to care and eventually sympathize with him. Here however, we're given a very realistic character that while is an archetypal business man, he has "layers". Same with Valentine's character, how he acts is congruent with his character and his actions never seem out of place, something I find exceedingly rare in many modern films. With the writing, the film knows how to sell a joke and make it funny. It treats its audience as fair minded people, rather than bumbling idiots like many movies seem to think we are nowadays. The film isn't overtly obvious with its humor. Plenty of the scenes in this film (especially one involving a gorilla and a man in gorilla suit, and one involving Valentine first experiencing a jacuzzi tub) that would be mishandled in more modern comedy films, namely that the joke would either be dragged or made uncomfortable. But this film shows a level of constraint where it needs to and gives the extreme reaction in areas where it's most funny or makes sense, and that's probably why I enjoy this film so much. It doesn't beat you over the head with the joke. It doesn't drag on the extreme reactions and actions in order to force a laugh, it uses timing, which I hope more films nowadays with display.

I think that this film is an important film for both movie fans and aspiring script writers alike. It's important for movie goers because it gives a type of humor we see so little of nowadays, and it's important for the script writers to see how a film handles comedic timing and balancing emotional extremity. If you haven't seen this film yet, definitely see it, it's one of the smarter comedies created and it still stands up today. (Real Rating: 100%).