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The Switch
2010, Will Speck and Josh Gordon
Typical RomCom with more Dramedy overtones that is given a bit of life by Jason Bateman and a well-cast child actor. The premise you've probably already gathered from the advertising: Jennifer Aniston is a thirtysomething who's biological clock is ticking, and without any obvious partner material she decides to go the donor route. Her best friend, played by Bateman, of course harbors deep romantic feelings for her, but she simply doesn't see him as a mate, not even as a potential donor. She cares about and trusts him, but he is highly neurotic and filled with self doubt, big turnoffs for her. The night of the insemination "party", Bateman's Wally Mars gets drunk (and inadvertently high), while already depressed and jealous as all get out, then he accidentally destroys the sample...replacing it with his own. He blacks out and represses the deed, and nobody else is the wiser. She moves away before the baby is born, and when she returns seven years later with her son Sebastion (Thomas Robinson) in tow, he exhibits most of Wally's depressive self-absorption instead of the confident athlete she had hand-picked, and Wally finally begins to remember what happened that fateful night.
Other than the concept, there really isn't much there as a story. It does tread more on the drama side of the tracks and doesn't have any over-the-top wackiness going on, not anything like the cartoonish insanity in the dual directors' debut, the Will Ferrell ice skating vehicle Blades of Glory. It's much more calm, character-based, and rooted in reality than that. But it's probably too subdued for its own good, needing either some true dramatic tension or some inspired screwball antics. The immensely likable Bateman's persona and the genuinely amusing and understated performance of young Robinson as the sadsack worrywort of a kid who collects picture frames and browses WebMD looking for obscure diseases and syndromes he's sure he probably has, they are what make The Switch a bit better than the material. Sprinkle in a few oddball line readings by Jeff Goldblum and it's worth a rental, down the line anyway.
GRADE: C
The Switch
2010, Will Speck and Josh Gordon
Typical RomCom with more Dramedy overtones that is given a bit of life by Jason Bateman and a well-cast child actor. The premise you've probably already gathered from the advertising: Jennifer Aniston is a thirtysomething who's biological clock is ticking, and without any obvious partner material she decides to go the donor route. Her best friend, played by Bateman, of course harbors deep romantic feelings for her, but she simply doesn't see him as a mate, not even as a potential donor. She cares about and trusts him, but he is highly neurotic and filled with self doubt, big turnoffs for her. The night of the insemination "party", Bateman's Wally Mars gets drunk (and inadvertently high), while already depressed and jealous as all get out, then he accidentally destroys the sample...replacing it with his own. He blacks out and represses the deed, and nobody else is the wiser. She moves away before the baby is born, and when she returns seven years later with her son Sebastion (Thomas Robinson) in tow, he exhibits most of Wally's depressive self-absorption instead of the confident athlete she had hand-picked, and Wally finally begins to remember what happened that fateful night.
Other than the concept, there really isn't much there as a story. It does tread more on the drama side of the tracks and doesn't have any over-the-top wackiness going on, not anything like the cartoonish insanity in the dual directors' debut, the Will Ferrell ice skating vehicle Blades of Glory. It's much more calm, character-based, and rooted in reality than that. But it's probably too subdued for its own good, needing either some true dramatic tension or some inspired screwball antics. The immensely likable Bateman's persona and the genuinely amusing and understated performance of young Robinson as the sadsack worrywort of a kid who collects picture frames and browses WebMD looking for obscure diseases and syndromes he's sure he probably has, they are what make The Switch a bit better than the material. Sprinkle in a few oddball line readings by Jeff Goldblum and it's worth a rental, down the line anyway.
GRADE: C