If we were asked for an opinion on the Christmas film par excellence, we would have no doubts: we would choose the epic of Billy Ray Valentine and Louis Winthorpe III, both unwitting victims of the terrible Duke brothers. Made in 1983, “An Armchair for Two” (whose original title is “Trading Places) is one of the masterpieces of the great John Landis, director, among others, of true cult films such as “Animal House” (1978), “ The Blues Brothers” (1980), “An American Werewolf in London” (1981) and “Coming to America” (1988).
The plot
The film projects us into 1980s Philadelphia, where the young and arrogant Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Aykroyd) lives a comfortable life, divided between working as a stockbroker, going out with his girlfriend Penelope and playing tennis with the friends of the club of which he is a member. Our tranquility is shattered by the chance encounter with Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy), a homeless scammer who pretends to be a Vietnam veteran: Louis is accidentally bumped into by Billy Ray, a misunderstanding arises, and the latter is unjustly arrested.
The scene takes place under the eyes of Winthorpe’s employers, the billionaire brothers Mortimer and Randolph Duke (played respectively by Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy), who decide to make a bet (for the symbolic sum of one dollar) and make a sort of social experiment: what really determines a man’s success? And what, instead, pushes him into the criminal world? Should the responsibilities be attributed to genetics (the thesis supported by Mortimer), or to the social environment in which one grows up (as stated by Randoplh)?
To answer all these questions, they decide to exchange the lives of Winthorpe and Valentine: the first, as a rich and refined yuppie, will find himself indicted, imprisoned and condemned to poverty, while the second, from a penniless little swindler, will become the Duke and Duke’s point man, a respectable and successful manager.
Assisted by the faithful Coleman (Winthorpe’s butler, played by Denhom Elliott) and the prostitute Ohpelia (Jamie Lee Curtis), our heroes, initially enemies, will end up becoming great friends and will band together to make the Dukes brothers pay dearly.
A cult that renews itself
An irresistible mix of humor and social criticism of the time, as well as a perfect photograph of 1980s capitalism and the nascent yuppie generation, the film consolidated Eddie Murphy’s talent (in his second film, after his 1982 debut with “48 Hours” ) and Dan Aykroyd (already quite famous for his previous role in “The Blues Brothers”), and offered Jamie Lee Curtis a role that allowed her to explore new genres, temporarily abandoning horror (Curtis, protagonist of the film “Halloween”, was one of the greatest scream queens in the history of cinema, the scream queens, as the female protagonists of horror films were renamed).
The new version restored in 4K, which returns to theaters on 9, 10 and 11 December thanks to Adler Entertainment, promises to further enhance the visual and narrative energy of one of the most beloved comedies of all time, an unmissable opportunity for cinema enthusiasts , but also for the new generations, who will be able to rediscover a timeless cult on the big screen, capable of entertaining and making us think with the same intensity as back then.
Happy new year to all of you!
