We have all been there, have we not?  At some point, we will encounter that person, usually a friend, who has the kind of life we wish we were leading.  Such a feeling comes from a place of brokenness.  This is not simply a case of being incomplete without God in our lives, though that is invariably at the root of such troubles.  More specifically, it can feel like brokenness partially because God could be calling us to move in a different direction.  The more such promptings are ignored, the more anxious you will feel.  If you are familiar with 2011’s The Change-Up, starring Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds, then you will think it crazy of me to bring up that film in connection to these ideas.  Further, it is a theme that I have discussed in other reviews.  You can deny God’s existence all you want, but what is harder to ignore are the feelings about which I am talking.  Regardless of your level of belief, God is at work in this way in your life, right now. Your happiness depends on how well you respond to the stirrings of your soul.  Keep this in mind while you read the rest of this nonsense, and be open to where else I plan to take this article.

David “Dave” Lockwood (Jason Bateman) and Mitchell “Mitch” Planko Jr. (Ryan Reynolds) are best friends.  To them, The Change-Up is a type of pitch thrown by somebody on their favorite baseball team, the Atlanta Braves.  Since they have become adults, though, their lives have gone in two different directions.  Dave is married to architect Jamie Lockwood (Leslie Mann), and they have three young children, including infant twins.  If he is not busy with late night feedings, he is thinking about his successful career as a lawyer.  The firm at which he works is about to make him partner.  As his day is unfolding, he gets a call from Mitch.  The ring is to remind Dave that he is supposed to go out that night for Mitch, something they have not done for a while.  Dave promises he will be there, but it means telling Jamie that he cannot make their planned engagement for that same evening.  This is a common occurrence for Dave.  All the same, they go out to a sports bar to watch the Braves game, getting pretty inebriated in the process.  As they do so, they reminisce about each other’s lives.  Though Mitch is a barely employed actor, who does little else than sleep with women and smoke week, there is something about his friend’s life he finds appealing.  As for Dave, he envies the freedom he perceives Mitch as having, not the least of which is because Dave finds Sabrina McKay (Olivia Wilde), his assistant, attractive.  As they stumble out of the watering hole and into the park across the street, the compliments continue to flow.  This flow carries over into their urination into a fountain, during which they simultaneously declare that they wish they had each other’s lives.  At that moment, the lights go out in the city.  It is Mitch who is the first to realize what has happened when he is awakened in the middle of the night by the cries of baby twins with dirty diapers.  There are some unkind words spoken, to Jamie and the children, before he finally looks in the mirror and notices that he is staring back at himself with Dave’s body.  Dave has the same experience a few hours later, but with significantly fewer wives and young ones about which to worry.  From here on out, please read this as Dave doing everything in Mitch’s form, and vice versa.  As soon as they realize the gravity of the situation, they return to the location of the fountain to find it missing.  They had hoped to replicate the fluke accident that made them this way, but without the water feature it appears hopeless.  Worse yet, their inquiries at city hall are met with uncertainly as they do not know where it has gone.  The only answers they do get is that it could be three days or weeks before anyone could tell them to where it has been relocated.  This means that the irresponsible Mitch must play the part of a high-powered attorney, while Dave must learn how to relax.  This last bit may seem easy, but Dave sees disaster in sending Mitch into negotiations for a merger that is supposed to be the final step before becoming partner.  These fears prove well-founded when there are far more questions during the meeting than anticipated, though Dave had assumed that all Mitch would have to do is hand over some documents.  Under a torrent of questions, Mitch folds as does the merger, for the moment.  Dave then takes Mitch by the hand in order to show the man who does not know how to be one the way to behave as would a husband and a father.  Mitch gains some further motivation when his father, Mitchell “Mitch” Planko Sr. (Alan Arkin), asks who Dave to lunch.  During the meal, Mitch Sr. unwittingly tells Mitch Jr. that, despite the familial love, he thinks his son is a quitter.  As for Dave, he is able to not only unwind from the responsibility he has been feeling, but has the opportunity to go out on a date with Sabrina.  This has been set up by Mitch, who also thinks she is hot.  Yet, before anything can develop in the way so many adult relationships do in films, Dave sees a tattoo on her body that reminds him of his daughter.  Meanwhile, Mitch has saved the merger, but at the cost of Dave’s marriage to Jamie.  Thus, as he is about to be made partner, Dave barges in on the country club where Mitch is about to be honored in Dave’s name to say that they need to go to the fountain.  It has been found, but it is in a mall.  This means they have to risk people staring at them as they do their business in public, but they get the job done.  We end a month later with Mitch giving a heartwarming speech at Dave and Jamie’s celebration of their tenth wedding anniversary, and Sabrina being Mitch’s date.

As I described The Change-Up, I had to delete names a couple of times and rearrange them because of the way the movie works.  It might seem confusing, but I think you got the idea.  You might also be confused by why this is such a great film to talk about Catholic ideas.  After all, it is irreverent in every conceivable way, including spouting some awful stereotypes about Catholic girls.  I also had to fast forward through a couple of scenes where things got too graphic.  Despite the obvious problems with the content, and what I already said in the introduction, there is something to be said about this film and the benefits of the Sacrament of Confession.  Actually, the correct term is Reconciliation, but it is called “Confession” because it starts with us going into the confessional to speak our sins.  Psalm 51:19 states, “My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;/ a contrite, humble heart, O God, you will not scorn.”  In order to make your participation in this Sacrament effective, it must start with contrition.  If you do not feel sorry for the wrong you have done, then what is the point?  It takes Dave and Mitch some time before they understand what they need to do.  Indeed, when they first learn of where the fountain has been rebuilt, they hesitate.  They have become used to living out their wish.  It takes each of them being confronted with the wrong they have done in order to finally know what needs to be done.  They do learn a bit about life from literally walking in another person’s shoes, and that is part of it, too.  There is nothing we can experience that Jesus does not already comprehend.  This is why He is the first person to which we should bring our problems, particularly our sins.  Having a priest to discuss these things with privately is also beneficial.  It is an intimate setting, not unlike what Dave and Mitch experience amongst themselves.

Having said all the positive things I can about The Change-Up, I still would not recommend it.  There is far too much nudity in it to make it worth your time.  It is another one of those movies that has a kernel of goodness in it amongst a sea of bad.  You do not need to see these things to know there is still a shred of dignity left in the world.  You can just pray and read The Legionnaire.