HMT-Roger

For a comedy like "The Change-Up" -- which is to say, a comedy with a message about as deep as a bowl of beer nuts -- familiarity with Shakespeare's disguise plays and Aesop's Fables isn't a prerequisite for getting the picture.

On the other hand, familiarity with both body-switch comedies and Judd Apatow laffers is indispensable for understanding just where this raunchy Apatow imitation with a heart of Lipitor goes wrong.

The anatomy swappers here are Mitch (Ryan Reynolds), a swingin', irresponsible single guy, and Dave (Jason Bateman), a driven lawyer/husband/dad. The switcheroo goes down because the two buddies-since-childhood do something stupid during a Guys' Night Out in their hometown of Atlanta: They pee in a fountain. Specifically, they pee in a fountain presided over by a stony statue of the Greek goddess Metis while drunkenly declaring to each other, ''I wish I had your life!'' (For the record, Metis is the goddess of counsel, advice, planning, and cunning.)

Dave thinks he envies Mitch's life of free sex and fiscal irresponsibility. Mitch, a wannabe actor, thinks he envies Dave's successful career, his loving home life, and his cute wife (Leslie Mann). Crash, lightning, temporary power outage, "Freaky Friday!" The deal is done. The next day each guy wakes up in the body of the other. Discovery of genital distinctions follows.

Here's "The Change-Up's" first mistake: As set up by director David Dobkin ("Wedding Crashers") and writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore("The Hangover"), the game is rigged. Dave may be burned-out, so much so that he has stopped appreciating his squeaky Leslie Mann of a wife. He may even feel a pang or two of extramarital lust at the sight of his beautiful law associate Sabrina -- as played by Olivia Wilde, who wouldn't? But no one would envy Mitch's directionless, idiotic Peter Pan life -- even if Peter entertains the ladies in a playpen of an apartment.

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