Rating: 4/5
As a directorial debut from the star of Master of None, this movie is really great in both its comedy and plot points even though it is as cliche as it can be. The story follows the protagonist Arj’s miserable life as a task sergeant, a more glamorous name for an Uber deliverer but aside from food delivery, he is also tasked to do many things such as cleaning and waiting in lines. He gradually loses hope in his life as he everything turns for the worse and Gabriel, a low-tier angel who was only in charge of helping out people who text and drives, felt sympathetic and went past his responsibilities and swapped billionaire Jeff’s body with Arj’s in hopes to make Arj appreciate his own life. However, this plan totally backfires and now Gabriel, feeling guilty for what he has done, and the body-swapped Jeff needs to persuade Arj that his own life was more worth living than the one of a billionaire’s.
My primary issue with this movie is the fact that its argument for “happiness over wealth” isn’t strong enough. Even though the movie tries to buttress this claim with side-plots relating to his friends and romantic relationship with Elena to try and suggest that: “sure you are wealthy, but those who love you don’t know who you are.” Arj’s reaction to this idea just isn’t convincing enough. With his wealth, he still recoups his failing relationship with Elena, helped out his friends, and bought his father a house, and even at the end of the movie, he still parties with Jeff and Gabriel in his mansion as a last form of goodbye, so did he really want to give up wealth? Also, why can’t Jeff and Arj continue to be friends after they exchange bodies again? Other than that, the movie was really funny. Keanu Reeves is as graceful as he always is just like the angel that he portrays, awkwardly funny but convincing in his seriousness of the role, and as for Seth Rogen, he gave his best shot at it and he’s just Seth Rogen! Commercially, I do think the main reason that this movie didn’t perform as well is because of its Age rating, its frequent use of the F and S words did land it in an R rating, but I thought that if they had an R already, they probably could’ve done more on the adult humor side of things, which is unfortunate. Overall, it was a solid movie that kept me entertained as I watched it more than 3 times during my flight to and back from New York City.