Film Openings: The Change Up (2011)

Genre: Comedy
Box Office (gross): $75, 450, 437 (worldwide)
Distributed: Universal Pictures
Studio: Relativity Media, Original Film, Big Kid Pictures
Reception: The film did receive a relative number of unfavorable reviews one of which was received by the Telegraph who named it as one of 10 worst films of 2011 and declared: " Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman have skill, charm, timing-everything but the right script".

Narrative

The scene begins with a birds eye-view long shot of a man sleeping in a double bed coloured blue, matching the colour of his pyjamas. As soon as the scene begins, calm non-diegetic music plays in the background whilst the diegetic ambient sound of grass hoppers in the background also. In addition to this, the diegetic wails of a baby crying can be heard. We are introduced to a woman lying on the other side of the bed which we can assume to be the man's wife, this meaning that the characters are both part of a serious relationship (in fact they are married, as seen by the ring on the man's finger in the following shot). A close up shot and mid-close up shot of the man helps convey and emphasize to the audience that this man is tired: assumed due to it being the middle of the night (deduced by the absence of light and the presence of a diegetic grass hopper sound which can be associated with night). A close up shot track the man through the corridors where a long shot is used and pans to establish the room and its contents. There is a middle close up shot of a baby girl as well as a middle close up shot of a baby boy, establishing that the couple in the movie have twins. The father's inability to control the process of nappy changing starts to establish a comedic value in the film. A middle close up shot introduces the baby boy where comedy is established through the baby's harmful yet highly unrealistic action of thumping his head on the cot. This comedic moment acts as the starting point to a climatic hilarious moment where the the man struggles to change the baby's nappy and ends up with excrement on his face. The scene ends with a middle long shot of the man sat down watching television and feeding the baby's bottled milk at the same time. The titles appear after this point. In this scene we have established that the narrative is based on a family man.