''The Exchange'' is a 2021 internationally co-produced

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film directed by

Dan Mazer Daniel Gideon Mazer (born 4 October 1971) is a British screenwriter, producer, and comedian. Mazer is best known as the long-time writing and production partner of comedian Sacha Baron Cohen and worked with him on his three unorthodox characters ...

from a screenplay by

Tim Long Tim Long (born June 14, 1969) is a comedy writer born in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. Long calls Exeter, Ontario, his home town and has written for ''The Simpsons'', ''Politically Incorrect'', ''Spy (magazine), Spy'' magazine and the ''Late Show wit ...

. It stars

Ed Oxenbould Ed Oxenbould (born 1 June 2001) is an Australian actor. He rose to prominence for his role in the film '' Julian'' (2012). Subsequently, he appeared in the television series ''Puberty Blues'' (2012–2014) and became more well-known for his rol ...

Avan Jogia Avan Tudor Jogia (; born February 9, 1992) is a Canadian actor. He first received recognition for portraying Danny Araujo in the television film '' A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story'' (2006). After moving to the United States in his late te ...

and

Justin Hartley Justin Scott Hartley (born January 29, 1977) is an American actor. He has played Fox Crane on the NBC daytime soap opera ''Passions'' (2002–2006), Oliver Queen/Green Arrow on The CW television series ''Smallville'' (2006–2011), and Adam New ...

. The film follows the events triggered by outcast student Tim Long entering an exchange program hoping to get a sophisticated kindred spirit sent from France but instead ending up with more than he bargained for when the outgoing Stéphane turns up in his quiet Canadian town. It was released in the United States and Canada on July 30, 2021, by

Elevation Pictures Elevation Pictures is a Canadian film distribution and production company founded in 2013 by Laurie May and co-led by Noah Segal. The company made its debut at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. Distribution Since its debut in late 20 ...

and

Quiver Distribution Quiver Distribution is an American-Canadian film production and film distribution company founded in 2019 by Berry Meyerowitz and Jeff Sackman. The company is best known for releasing films '' The Fanatic'', ''Running with the Devil ''Running wit ...

Plot

Winter 1986, a small

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

town called Hobart which is still suffering the effects of financial recession. Tim, a student with pretensions of sophistication, enters a

student exchange program A student exchange program is a program in which students from a secondary school (high school) or university study abroad at one of their institution's partner institutions. A student exchange program may involve international travel, but doe ...

in hopes the French student will share his love of the cultured things in life. Something he feels is sorely lacking in his provincial classmates. To his dismay the exchangee, Stéphane, is not what he expected. Outgoing, fashion conscious, with a healthy appetite for sex and little interest in "culture". Stéphane is initially able to quickly charm those around him like

teaching assistant A teaching assistant or teacher's aide (TA) or education assistant (EA) or team teacher (TT) is an individual who assists a teacher with instructional responsibilities. TAs include ''graduate teaching assistants'' (GTAs), who are graduate school ...

Diane. Even her domineering boyfriend Gary Rothbauer, school gym teacher and local part-time policeman, initially takes to Stéphane. Partly because he laughed at his joke but also due to his

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

skills. Walking with Diane, Gary decides to take advantage of a closing down sale. Leaving Diane outside to hold the shopping, he bullies the owner into a better deal on already discounted shoes. The final straw for the bankrupt shop-keep, while seemingly going to fetch stock, instead goes to the top of his shop to jump off. Unaware, Diane is in his path. Passing on the other side of the street with Tim, Stéphane spots what is about to happen and rushes to sweep Diane off her feet out of danger. Diane is saved and the shop-keep is unharmed. Stéphane is hailed a hero, to the chagrin of Gary and further overshadowing Tim. Stéphane quickly becomes more popular, excelling at making friends and wooing the girls. During a ride home from school Tim sits awkwardly in the front with Brenda Crowfoot (a classmate with a crush on him) while Stéphane energetically has sex in the backseat with classmate Mary. Stéphane even manages to give sage advice to Tim's father about sharing his mounting business woes with his wife. Tim's father in return tries to help the young exchange student bond with his son, leading Stéphane and Tim to an eventful night-time drive. Not everything goes smoothly for Stéphane, The school bullies target him for racist abuse by pasting his photo onto a newspaper about terrorists. Persistent goading on the soccer field leads to Stéphane

headbutt A headbutt is a targeted strike with the head, typically (when intentional) involving the use of robust parts of the headbutter's cranium as the area of impact. The most effective headbutts strike the most sensitive areas of an opponent, such as ...

ing the offending player. Gary uses the red carding as pretext to denigrate the benched player leading to a heated outpouring against the town and its

White Squirrel Tree squirrels are the members of the squirrel family (Sciuridae) commonly just referred to as "squirrels." They include more than 100 arboreal species native to all continents except Antarctica and Oceania. They do not form a single natural, or ...

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fi ...

from Stéphane. Seeing Gary's jealous and spiteful behavior for what it is Diane breaks up with him. With his relations with the town souring, Stéphane's rocky friendship with Tim takes a nosedive. Earlier Stéphane had swapped Tim's presentation

video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syste ...

for one the pair had drunkenly made wherein Tim proclaimed his appreciation for Brenda, with the intent she will see it and the two will finally get together. Instead the video ends up played for the whole class, humiliating Tim and driving a wedge between the friends. Stéphane moves out of Tim's home to stay with Brenda and her brothers, the Crowfoots. The Crowfoots are themselves on the outskirts of town "polite society" being

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

and thus sympathetic to Stéphane's treatment by the other townspeople. When the White Squirrel

float Float may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music Albums * ''Float'' (Aesop Rock album), 2000 * ''Float'' (Flogging Molly album), 2008 * ''Float'' (Styles P album), 2013 Songs * "Float" (Tim and the Glory Boys song), 2022 * "Float", by Bush ...

is found destroyed Stéphane is blamed, Gary particularly insistent he's the culprit. At the White Squirrel

parade A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, float (parade), floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually ce ...

Stéphane is arrested in front of the whole town. Tim, despite their differences, makes an impassioned plea in his defense with his father stepping forward with an alibi. The suspicion of guilt falls on Gary, who first protests, offering his alibi of having sex with Diane at the time. However, she is among the crowd and angrily refutes this claim, having previously broken up with him. Caught very publicly in a lie and crime, Gary makes a run for it but is quickly clotheslined by Brenda's brother and arrested. A now exonerated Stéphane and Tim patch up their relationship. Events prove cathartic for many as Tim's parents finally discuss their financial problems openly while Tim and Brenda kiss. A reversal of the film's plot sees Tim has traveled to France as an exchange student to be among Stéphane's friends in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

at the end.

Cast

as Tim *

as Stéphane *

as Gary Rothbauer *

Jennifer Irwin Jennifer Irwin is a Canadian actress best known for her roles as Dolly Durkins on iZombie and as Laurie Neustadt in the comedy '' Superstore''. Irwin is a graduate of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. She worked with The Second City in th ...

as Sheila *

Paul Braunstein Paul Braunstein is a Canadian actor who starred in the popular Canadian television series ''Train 48 ''Train 48'' was a Canadian improvised soap opera, broadcast on Global Television Network and CH from 2003 until 2005. ''Train 48'' was based ...

as Glenn *

Jayli Wolf Jayli Wolf (born 23 November) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, actress, and filmmaker. She began her music career in collaboration with Hayden Wolf under the name Once A Tree. As a solo artist, she broke out with her single and music video "Child ...

as Brenda *

Kathy Greenwood Kathryn Greenwood (born March 21, 1962) is a Canadian actress and comedian. She appeared on the American version of ''Whose Line Is It Anyway?'' numerous times, and played Grace Bailey on the Canadian television drama series ''Wind at My Back ...

as Mrs. Fleming *

Melanie Leishman Melanie Leishman (born February 20, 1989) is a Canadians, Canadian actress. She is best known for portraying bespectacled Hannah B. Williams, one of the main characters on the cult Comedy horror, horror/comedy television series ''Todd and the Book ...

as Diane *

Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll is a Canadian actor and comedian. He was a dual Canadian Screen Award nominee at the 8th Canadian Screen Awards in 2020, receiving nods for Best Lead Performance in a Web Program or Series for '' Save Me'' and Best Supportin ...

as Kevin * Brandon Oakes as Neil Crowfoot

Production

In April 2019, it was announced

and

had joined the cast of the film, with

directing from a screenplay by

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

began in April 2019. Filming took place in Almonte,

Carleton Place Carleton Place is a town in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in Lanark County, about west of downtown Ottawa. It is located at the crossroads of Highway 15 and Highway 7, halfway between the towns of Perth, Almonte, Smiths Falls, and the nation's cap ...

, and

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. The film is set in the fictional town of Hobart, Ontario, a thinly-disguised version of Long's hometown of

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

Costume designer A costume designer is a person who designs costumes for a film, stage production or television show. The role of the costume designer is to create the characters' outfits or costumes and balance the scenes with texture and colour, etc. The costume ...

was

Lea Carlson Lea Carlson is a Canadian costume designer in film and television. She is most noted as a three-time Canadian Screen Award nominee for Best Costume Design, receiving nominations at the 2nd Canadian Screen Awards in 2014 for '' The Colony'', at the ...

, responsible for the 80's fashions worn by the film's characters.

Release

In May 2021,

acquired US distribution rights to the film. It was released in the United States and Canada on July 30, 2021.

Reception

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

surveyed and, categorizing the reviews as positive or negative, assessed five as positive and one as negative for a 83% rating. Among the reviews, it determined an average rating of 6.70 out of 10. In 2023, Barry Hertz of ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'' named the film as one of the 23 best Canadian comedy films ever made.Barry Hertz
"The 23 best Canadian comedies ever made"
''

'', June 28, 2023.

Accolades

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Exchange (2021 film), The 2021 films 2021 comedy-drama films 2020s coming-of-age comedy-drama films 2020s English-language films American coming-of-age comedy-drama films American high school films American independent films American teen comedy films Australian coming-of-age comedy-drama films Australian independent films Australian teen comedy films British coming-of-age comedy-drama films British high school films British independent films British teen comedy films Canadian coming-of-age comedy-drama films Canadian independent films Canadian teen comedy films English-language Canadian films Films directed by Dan Mazer Films set in 1986 Films set in Ontario Films shot in Ontario Quiver Distribution films Student exchange in fiction 2020s Canadian films 2020s American films 2020s British films