Rating Places

Figuring that I would need something lighter after In the Valley of Elah, I decided to check out Trading Places -- an 80s comedy that had somehow slid through the cracks. As one of my friends put it, it's a movie from back in the days when "those two guys were funny."

The guys in question, of course, being stars Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy. They star as a pampered rich brat and struggling homeless man who become the object of a bet by two old, stingy curmudgeons who want to determine if financial success is a result of breeding and genetics, or of simple circumstance and social advantage. They contrive to do exactly what the title suggests, ruining the life of Aykroyd's character and elevating Murphy's into high status.

It is a funny movie at times, but it rarely produces any laugh out loud moments. Still, that's more a weakness of the script that the actors, I think. This sort of "I know more than you" pompous ass is what Dan Aykroyd did best at this point in time, and Eddie Murphy's brand of comedy (in my opinion) works a lot better when he's sharing the movie with someone else -- all Eddie all the time wears you down pretty quickly.

There's also the always funny character actor Denholm Elliott as a put-upon butler, Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche as the two gambling with people's lives, and Jamie Lee Curtis as a self-enterprising prostitute who becomes an ally of Aykroyd's character. They bring more to the film than is there on the page... which frankly isn't much on its own.

Indeed, the "swapped places" gimmick is exhausted almost immediately, and the movie even resolves it by the end of the second act. The final act is an elaborate revenge scheme full of strange diversions both boggling (what's with the whole gorilla subplot?) and crass (was society still accepting of blackface in 1983 in any context other than historical portrayal or "this is not okay"?). The conclusion throws away logic in favor of a feel-good resolution, and erodes a good deal of what made the movie enjoyable for the first hour and change.

It's not a total bust, but neither would I call it a high point of either Aykroyd or Murphy's career, as I've sometimes heard. I'd rate it a C+.