Vice Versa (1988) Columbia/Comedy RT: 98 minutes Rated PG (language, bathroom humor) Director: Brian Gilbert Screenplay: Ian La Frenais and Dick Clement Music: David Shire Cinematography: King Baggot Release date: March 11, 1988 (US) Cast: Judge Reinhold, Fred Savage, Corinne Bohrer, Swoosie Kurtz, Jane Kaczmarek, David Proval, William Prince, Gloria Gifford, Beverly Archer, Harry Murphy, Kevin O’Rourke, Richard Kind, Chip Lucia, Ajay Naidu, Raymond Rosario, Elya Baskin, James Hong, Jane Lynch, Martyn St. David, Danielle Kohl, P.J. Brown. Box Office: $13.7M (US)
Rating: ***
The comedy Vice Versa is the second in a cycle of movies I like to call “Invasion of the Body Switchers”. It started in fall ’87 with Like Father, Like Son starring Dudley Moore and Kirk Cameron as a father and son who switch places courtesy of a magic Indian potion. It was terrible. I didn’t expect any better from Vice Versa starring Judge Reinhold and Fred Savage as a father and son who switch places courtesy of a magic golden statue. I went to see it expecting another excruciating movie experience and was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be quite the opposite. It’s actually sweet, endearing and funny. It does right everything Like Father, Like Son did wrong. A lot of it has to do with the two leads. Simply put, Reinhold and Savage nail their roles perfectly.
Reinhold (Beverly Hills Cop) plays Marshall Seymour, the divorced, workaholic vice president of a major Chicago department store who barely spends time with his 11YO son Charlie (Savage, The Wonder Years). He can’t even be bothered to get to his kid’s school talent show on time. Charlie is left in his care when his mother (Kaczmarek, The Heavenly Kid) and her husband (Lucia, Rage of Honor) take a vacation. There’s already a lot of tension in the air when they get into an argument over who has it easier. They wish they could switch places and be each other. When they say this, they both happen to be touching the magic statue in Marshall’s possession after a delivery mix-up (more about that in a moment). ALAKAZAM, PRESTO! Charlie’s mind transfers to his father’s body and vice versa. Now they have to live each other’s lives while they try to figure out how to return things to normal.
Marshall, in his son’s body, must navigate middle school and its various trials and tribulations- e.g. tests, teachers, bullies and inedible school lunches. Charlie, in the form of his dad, shows up to work in sneakers and turns the workplace into his own personal playground. This entails playing video games and jamming with a customer in the music department (Charlie’s a drummer and avid metal fan). Through this unusual experience, they begin to bond.
Meanwhile, there is evil afoot in the form of a couple of art smugglers, Tina (Kurtz, Wildcats) and her dimwitted partner Turk (Proval, Mean Streets). It’s their statue, sort of. They’re the ones that bought it from the thieves who stole it from a Buddhist monastery and arranged for it to be shipped to the US along with purchases made by Marshall while in Thailand. They want it back and will stop at nothing to obtain their purloined object of beauty. I know it’s silly, but isn’t the whole idea of body switching kind of silly too?
What really makes Vice Versa sing is how the two leads are able to convince us that they each inhabit the other’s body. Reinhold has this golly-gee whiz quality about him that makes him the perfect choice to play a big kid. Look at the scene where Marshall/Charlie confronts the bullies that have been picking on him. Posing as a “high school cop”, he puts the fear of God into them before ordering them to clean the toilet bowls in the boys’ room (“They better be gleaming!”). In the hallway afterwards, he does a victory dance. It gets better. He attends a parent’s conference with Charlie’s teacher (Archer, Mama’s Family) who tells him that his son lacks concentration. Naturally, he’s not paying attention when she says this and responds with “Huh?” Then we have Savage who fully brings out the adult in the kid with the way Charlie/Marshall barks orders on the phone to his dad’s secretary (Gifford, DC Cab) and calls for a limo service to pick him up at school from the office phone. At home, he drinks martinis and swears while Marshall/Charlie acts like a kid. This is a prime example of perfect casting.
There’s also a nice love story involving Marshall’s girlfriend/co-worker Sam (Bohrer, Police Academy 4) who likes the change that has come over her man. Suddenly, he’s taking her to rock concerts instead of stuffy restaurants. In an especially sweet moment, Charlie/Marshall expresses his true feelings of love towards her explaining that his father finds it hard to say how he really feels.
I like a lot of things about Vice Versa. I like the Chicago setting. Director Brian Gilbert (Not Without My Daughter) makes excellent use of the city’s locations. I like that the comedy actually works. In addition to all else, Reinhold is gifted at physical comedy. Look at the difference between the way he carries himself as an adult and a child in an adult’s body. The same can be said of Savage. Okay, the plot thread about Marshall’s two-faced co-workers- or, as Charlie-as-Marshall calls them, “ying-yangs”- is kind of tired. None of the situations are all that original but they seem fresh due to the two more-than-capable leads.
The bottom line here is that Vice Versa works better than it should. It’s legitimately funny and its heart is genuine. I don’t even mind that it relies on standard action-comedy tropes in the final act when the bad guys kidnap Charlie/Marshall to get back their property. It culminates into a chase scene involving a train that hardly rivals The French Connection or Running Scared but it works in its own way. Two other body-switch comedies, 18 Again and Big, followed that same year. Big is great, 18 Again is okay. Vice Versa is second to Big. It’s a nice choice for a night in.
SPECIAL NOTE: It should be noted that the body-switch idea actually originated with Disney’s Freaky Friday (1976) starring Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster as a mother and daughter who change places for a day. That one is funny too.
