‘The Change-Up’ like many that have gone before

Overworked lawyer Dave Lockwood (Jason Bateman) is on the verge of securing the vice presidency at his firm.

Dedication to his job has dulled his marriage to wife Jamie (Leslie Mann) and taken him away from his three children including daughter Cara (Sydney Rouviere).

In stark contrast, Dave’s best friend Mitch Planko (Ryan Reynolds) is a fast-talking, jobbing actor, who ricochets from one meaningless sexual encounter to the next.

One drunken night, the two men bemoan their lots and loudly proclaim, “I wish I had your life”, as they urinate in a fountain. The next morning, Dave and Mitch are trapped in each other’s bodies and have no obvious way to revert to normality.

The Change-Up was penned by the duo responsible for The Hangover and that film’s brand of filthy-minded lunacy spatters across every frame of David Dobkin’s fitful fantasy.

Bateman and Reynolds have far more fun mimicking each other’s mannerisms than we have watching them and the sentiment of the final frames is cloying.

Mann and Olivia Wilde are poorly served as the respective love interests – it defies belief that two smart women would overlook dramatic changes in their men.

Jon Lucas and Scott Moore’s script is riddled with implausibilities.

The enchanted fountain vanishes, trapping the characters in their new bodies for several days, even though logistically it would be impossible for a construction crew to remove a large water feature in a few hours.

Moreover, the heroes learn valuable lessons about their failings because they are party to heartfelt confessions that their alter-bodies would never overhear.

Dull contrivances abound.

Rating: 2/5.