The Change-Up opened on August 5, 2011, putting two lifelong friends into each other's bodies after a drunken wish and then letting the fallout run for the rest of the movie.
Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman play against type from what audiences expected of each: Bateman as the family man drowning in obligation, Reynolds as the bachelor who avoids commitment and is secretly miserable about it, both trading roles the moment they wake up.
The premise leans harder into raunch than most body swap comedies dare, which is part of why it never became the belated favorite some of its cast's other work did. It's blunter and meaner than the more wholesome version of the same trick, Freaky Friday.
The film works best now as a showcase for Reynolds and Bateman's chemistry, two performers who'd go on to define very different comic personas, here still figuring out how far they could push against each other.
