Louis Winthorpe III is a wealthy white man, and the managing director at a commodities brokerage firm. Billy Ray Valentine is a poor, black man hustling on the street. When they bump into each other, Winthorpe wigs out and shrieks that he’s being robbed. Watching the whole thing, brothers Randolph and Mortimer Duke, the owners of the commodities brokerage firm and Winthorpe’s bosses, hatch a plan. You see, Mortimer believes that nature—a man’s genes, his stock, his built-in talents—dictate his successes. But Randolph believes that nurture—a man’s environment, his upbringing, his circumstances—will influence his achievements. The two megalomaniacs choose to test their theory in an experiment by swapping Winthorpe and Valentine. To do this, Valentine is handed Winthorpe’s managing director job and put to work, while Winthorpe is sacked, framed for theft and drug dealing, and put out on the street. Aligning with Randolph’s nurture theory, Valentine does quite well in his new role while Winthorpe absolutely dissolves. But when Valentine overhears the Dukes discussing their wager, he approaches Winthorpe. The two are joined by Ophelia and Coleman, a caring prostitute and Winthorpe’s butler, and together they hatch a plan to take down the crumbly-old, racist Duke brothers.
This is about as much of a Christmas movie as “Die Hard”—but they both put me in a jolly mood, so I’ll permit it!
This film was fantastic and hilarious. It’s a philosophical examination of race and socioeconomic status wrapped in a screwball comedy’s clothes. In some ways, the film is as timely as ever, at home in a modern America that asks questions about equality, equity, justice, race, and the super-rich. Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd are both fantastic and perform this magic trick where they each take turns playing the straight man and the comic. The story is well paced and the script perfectly lays the groundwork for each man’s transformation in a comically-plausible way. And this present is with topped with the bow that is Elmer Bernstein’s musical score, which leverages classical music to sell the out-of-touch, bloated, pomp and circumstance of the wealthy elite.
Though I said the film can be “as timely as ever”, there are ways it doesn’t hold up. Some might be put off by the inclusion of boobs for boob’s sake (#boobsforboobssake). And then the whole train-ride sequence felt out of place for today (it also felt out of place in the film). Dan Ackroyd’s blackface didn’t contribute to the story enough to avoid a cringe, as did the gorilla suit rape antics. This is in contrast to the Duke brother’s use of the n-word, which is important because it shocks you into remembering the brutality of their experiment and that, well, these two quippy, old, white men are the bad guys.
Still, there is enough hilarious, wise, and good about this film for me to adore it. I instantly found a spot for it on my “great comedies” list.