People these days - and probably even in 1996 - probably don't know or remember that there was a time in the '80s when body-swap movies were all the rage, ie. "Big", "Vice Versa", "Like Father Like Son", and "Dream a Little Dream", perhaps the movie that killed the subgenre.
I mostly only know about them because I've read a lot of Roger Ebert's reviews (he taught me how to write these) and he was an avowed opponent of them. Perhaps he was right and they did suck: "Big" is the only one anybody remembers anyway (though according to Ebert, Judge Reinhold was better in "Vice Versa" than Tom Hanks was in "Big").
"Dating the Enemy" is an Australian body-swap movie from the mid-'90s. Seemingly all the flicks of this type from the '80s and before (ie. '76's "Freaky Friday" with Jodie Foster) dealt with the issue of age, because they were aimed at teenagers and tweens. The elderly and middle aged swapped bodies with their kids or grandkids. "Dating the Enemy" is a little different because, as you might have guessed, it is a gender-swap flick, and it's aimed (more or less) at adults.
This time, it's a brainy, beautiful-but-unglamorous science writer (Claudia Karvan) who swaps bodies with her rather vapid, narcissistic ex-boyfriend (Guy Pearce).
We get maybe one scene of their realising this change has taken place (perhaps the most amazing event in human history, but they aren't too fazed) and another when they deal with the realisation that they are now in possession of opposite genitals. It takes boys several awkward years to deal with the demands their bodies put on them and to learn to ignore them and shrug them off and maybe - just maybe - not feel too much of the unspeakable shame that boys are drenched with not only by their own hormones, but also by society, which does nothing but shame them for things they can't control. Karvan's character, in Guy Pearce's body, deals with it in one shot.
The movie should be about men and women learning what life is like through each other's eyes, and seeing that life really isn't easier for one sex than the other, that we all have problems and to stop cauterising the flow of human empathy before it reaches the male gender.
But guess what? There is one half-great scene in which life as the other gender is discussed, admissions are made and apologies are granted. Why is it only half-great? Because after a great moment between the two more-than-capable actors, we are totally ready for Pearce-as-Karvan to also acknowledge that life as a man isn't what she thought it would be. There is a telling scene where, as a man, she mouths off to another unruly man, and ends up getting her face smashed in. This is absolutely authentic: no man on the planet hasn't marveled at women behaving in a way around men that would get a man's head kicked in if he did the same.
The movie opens the door for equality, but doesn't go through it. It doesn't commit to the themes its premise raises. And with what it ends up with, it's not enough to sustain a full-length feature film, so it just ends up being thin soup most of the time.
At least the actors are up to the challenge. The movie only comes alive when it lets them do their thing, and there's a few good moments. But nothing all that enlightening.
I mostly only know about them because I've read a lot of Roger Ebert's reviews (he taught me how to write these) and he was an avowed opponent of them. Perhaps he was right and they did suck: "Big" is the only one anybody remembers anyway (though according to Ebert, Judge Reinhold was better in "Vice Versa" than Tom Hanks was in "Big").
"Dating the Enemy" is an Australian body-swap movie from the mid-'90s. Seemingly all the flicks of this type from the '80s and before (ie. '76's "Freaky Friday" with Jodie Foster) dealt with the issue of age, because they were aimed at teenagers and tweens. The elderly and middle aged swapped bodies with their kids or grandkids. "Dating the Enemy" is a little different because, as you might have guessed, it is a gender-swap flick, and it's aimed (more or less) at adults.
This time, it's a brainy, beautiful-but-unglamorous science writer (Claudia Karvan) who swaps bodies with her rather vapid, narcissistic ex-boyfriend (Guy Pearce).
We get maybe one scene of their realising this change has taken place (perhaps the most amazing event in human history, but they aren't too fazed) and another when they deal with the realisation that they are now in possession of opposite genitals. It takes boys several awkward years to deal with the demands their bodies put on them and to learn to ignore them and shrug them off and maybe - just maybe - not feel too much of the unspeakable shame that boys are drenched with not only by their own hormones, but also by society, which does nothing but shame them for things they can't control. Karvan's character, in Guy Pearce's body, deals with it in one shot.
The movie should be about men and women learning what life is like through each other's eyes, and seeing that life really isn't easier for one sex than the other, that we all have problems and to stop cauterising the flow of human empathy before it reaches the male gender.
But guess what? There is one half-great scene in which life as the other gender is discussed, admissions are made and apologies are granted. Why is it only half-great? Because after a great moment between the two more-than-capable actors, we are totally ready for Pearce-as-Karvan to also acknowledge that life as a man isn't what she thought it would be. There is a telling scene where, as a man, she mouths off to another unruly man, and ends up getting her face smashed in. This is absolutely authentic: no man on the planet hasn't marveled at women behaving in a way around men that would get a man's head kicked in if he did the same.
The movie opens the door for equality, but doesn't go through it. It doesn't commit to the themes its premise raises. And with what it ends up with, it's not enough to sustain a full-length feature film, so it just ends up being thin soup most of the time.
At least the actors are up to the challenge. The movie only comes alive when it lets them do their thing, and there's a few good moments. But nothing all that enlightening.