Vice Versa (1988)

Marshall arrives at the office There have been many films and television features based on the book written in 1882 by F. Anstey (Thomas Anstey Guthrie), in which a father and son exchange bodies due to the power of a mysterious oriental spell.

In this film version, a skull is vested with magical powers to swap people's bodies, and a modern-day father and son -- Marshall and Charlie Seymour -- swap inadvertently. As is usual in this situation, they agree to try to maintain the illusion of normality so far as the outside world is concerned, until they can somehow get back to normal. So the son must go to a high-powered business job as a director at a large department store in his father's body, and, well, vice versa. The "wrong" body language by the son in his father's body is particularly well played by Judge Reinhold, and in fact the direction generally of inhabiting the wrong bodies is well accomplished by Director Brian Gilbert.

When the father (actually the son in his body, of course) arrives at his workplace, he has to ask where his office is. A group of his subordinates note this, and the fact that he is wearing sneakers, and agree that he is cracking up. One comments, " Elliot Webb was like that, right before his breakdown; a week after that he was in the State Street window wearing a Valenciaga ballgown."

The couple exchange bodies A dishonest woman and her male accomplice acquired the skull in the first place -- Marshall had come by it due to a luggage mix-up. The couple get it back later in the film, and are making their escape by long-distance train. During the journey, they carelessly utter the magic words, and they too change bodies, but retain their own clothes. In a very brief segment, we see that they seem to be even less happy with it than the father and son were. That's him on the left in her body, and her on the right wearing her own clothes, but with his body. Clear?

Although screenplay was by Clement and le Frenais, I didn't find that this version sparkled as much as I hoped.

HF March 2001


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