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Film Features

Trading Faces: 10 Body-Switching Movies
David Bax , April 17th, 2009 03:36

As the insipid-looking Zach Efron vehicle 17 Again threatens to invade our cinemas, David Bax from the Battleship Pretension podcast looks back on the often overlooked (and rightly so) body-switching film genre.

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Good Body-Switching

4. Big

A lot of these movies are illustrations of the directive "Be careful what you wish for." You want to be young again? You want to show your dad how hard your life is? You want to wear another man's face? Be careful what you wish for. Big first approaches this concept with no subtlety at all (our protagonist literally wishes he were big) and then goes on to explore the theme with real consideration and a mourning of the innocence that is inevitably lost when your responsibilities and worries grow along with the rest of you.