A rom-com that adheres to the genre but is lifted by an on form Jason Bateman.
While romantic comedies never go out of fashion they do go through fads. The current one seems to be that of the sperm donor and or surrogate, clearly normal means of conception are not funny enough for Hollywood. The Switch falls somewhere between a number of recent films. It does not have the wit of Juno, nor the heart of The Kids Are Alright, but it certainly soars high above the woeful Jennifer Lopez vehicle The Back-up Plan.
Wally (Bateman) and Kassie (Aniston) have been best friends for years. When Wally learns that Kassie is aiming to get pregnant through sperm donor Roland (Wilson), he cannot get his head round it. Finding himself drunk in a bathroom he stumbles across the ‘donation’ and swaps it for his own ‘contribution’. Waking up the following morning, with a splitting hangover and a convenient case of amnesia, he is sad to hear that Kassie is leaving town to raise her child. Seven years pass and when Kassie moves back Wally cannot help but see the resemblance between himself and her son Sebastian (Robinson).
The film unfolds with a sit-com like mentality and there is nothing here that is original in terms of storytelling. All the characters are relatively stereotyped. Kassie is a career woman with body-clock hang-ups while Wally is a neurotic smart-ass. Surrounding them is a cast of fun friends who are only ever there to present a sounding board or comedic line. While Jeff Goldblum is fun as Wally’s friend he is under used and Juliet Lewis, as Kassie’s friend, is clearly being cast simply due to her loud mouth reputation.
Having said this it still manages to be fun and heartfelt. Directors Speck and Gordon know to keep the gimmicks to a minimum and let the script do the talking for them. It is well paced, even though the use of time-lapse as the seven years pass is clichéd, and never lags.
While Aniston is clearly at home in this sit-com environment she is rarely asked to do anything we have not seen from her countless times before. Robinson, as the young son, is uterus achingly cute and finds a unique balance of being nervous while bold and happy to stand up to Bateman. In fact the scenes which Bateman and Robinson share are easily the highlights of the film. Here Bateman demonstrates he is more than able to carry a comedy in the lead role rather than the supporting comedic sidekick, we are choosing to ignore Teen Wolf Too (1987). His dry delivery and never ending rolling eyes allow us to always be involved in the absurdity of the story at hand.
Considering the premise involves the swapping of seminal fluids The Switch may have easily come unstuck (sorry) but as it is it just about flows.
Trailer
