The Switch

The Switch (2010)

Okay, it would be easy to dis this movie as a canned, obvious, emotionally thin contrivance. It's a vehicle for two popular stars playing characters in their 30s who are, despite good looks and basic social skills, single and childless. They have to fall in love but life gets in the way in kind of stupid ways. You can't take it seriously, and you can't even quite care enough to hope for the best, whatever that is.

But it's also easy to like this movie despite its obviousness. Jason Bateman is a joy to watch. Maybe his performance is like the movie--glib and facile. But like the movie he is endlessly watchable, and his character is the one with the most depth. His interactions with the boy of six or so are terrific. The boy, too, is adorable and helps the movie get some feeling.

Jennifer Aniston plays the woman who wants a child but has no one willing to be the dad, more or less (though the viewer knows better). And she's a terrific actress, actually, even if her role here (and elsewhere) is often not as demanding as it could be. I suppose Meg Ryan has some kind of edge on her for this kind of stereotype--the lovable lonely urban girl who just can't get love right despite the obvious--but Aniston is an update on that type.

But it is Aniston and Bateman together that really make the movie glide along and make you smile. They have great rapport and good timing, comedic and serious both. I wouldn't say they have chemistry (I guess that's the problem their characters have, so maybe it's great acting) but they make their scenes pop in a way the rest of the movie trundles.

The story writer, Jeffrey Eugenides, is better known for sprawling novels and lots of interrelated characters, but even there there are little hooks that come off a hair obvious. That's the problem here, in the end. There's a big trick, a wonderful and funny hook of an idea, and that almost alone has to handle all the consequences. Some better character development would have been a joy.

Oh, and it's been a long time since a movie with two directors has been able to pull off consistency. I don't know the logistics behind it, but maybe one of the hesitations all along is a lack of singular conviction. Or not. Maybe this is such a formula product any number of directors could have chipped in.

Watch it for the two leads together. And for some fun, warm laughs, if that's your thing. I enjoyed it.

So I saw The Switch over this weekend and I must say I expected this to be a complete failure and it surprised me to not be that. Matter of fact, the movie stands out pretty well through Aniston's filmography. The story is not complicated, runs smooth and gets your attention. The story revolves around Wally Mars (Jason Bateman) a middle-age single guy who has a hard-time finding his match and Kassie Larson (Jennifer Aniston), his best-friend. At Kassie's semen-party, Wally gets drunk and switches the donator's sperm with his own without realizing and forgetting completely about what happened to next day. After seven years of being separated by distance Kassie movies back to her town and of course, she starts to talk again to her "best-friend". Problems appear only when Wally sees that Kassie's kid is acting pretty much similar like him so he remembers what he did and decides to tell Kassie the truth. Of course, this story has it's clichés and I'm the most bored person on the earth by clichés but this movie is a little bit different. It's not that funny, it has it's funny moments which were handled well but the movie it-self is more of a romance than a comedy so I enjoyed it more than others who expected a million laughs from it.

As far as the acting, this is definitely Aniston's best movie this year and I liked her attitude in this even though she portrays almost the same character but it's such an improvement from The Bounty Hunter. Jason Bateman was very good, hilarious at points as usual and actually approached a more serious tone for this role. The rest was good and I really was not bothered by anything at all. The characters were lovely and I was surprised for them to not look over-acted and exaggerated.

The cinematography, editing were pretty much normal, nothing to be mentioned and the score was as usual, typical for a romantic movie. With all these I want to say that this movie is not BAD and I don't understand people who love to bash this movie just for it's clichés and stuff like that. This movie is a simple good time for a boring afternoon. It's far from being great but it's such a better choice than most of the wack stuff that studios put out.

I think critics have been conditioned to think that any movie with Jennifer Aniston in it these days has to suck. I happily declare that this one doesn't. It has a likable romance. The dialogue is actually funny (especially anything that comes out of Jeff Goldblum's mouth). Based on the premise - which comes off much less implausible than it probably should - I was expecting a lot more lowbrow comedy and was pleasantly surprised. And Jason Bateman is a wonderful and underrated leading man. The voice-overs are perhaps a bit insipid and probably could have been skipped entirely, but that's a minor complaint. I enjoyed the film. 7 out of 10.

Not your typical rom-com, but if you like Jason Bateman or Jennifer Aniston, then this is an enjoyable movie. Near the end of the film it gets so awkward. It's laugh out loud. Funny. Definitely worth the price of admission.

"The Switch" is like a romantic comedy, except better because it gives you everything you want: romance and comedy with a story and characters. They buck the trend to make the romantic elements absurd and instead shower us with comedy and very little sap.

Jennifer Aniston is just a cute girl that the audience can accept as a character, but Jason Bateman is everything you want in a leading man. Very good looking but not in a typical way, plays up neurotic with aplomb, and is hilarious all the way through. We easily fall in love with him from beginning to end.

"The Switch" actually gives us a story, one where our hero has to evolve and mature as he realizes and understands the value that Aniston and her son bring to his life. Again, Jason Bateman is the kind of man that we have been waiting for in romantic comedies, because he actually has the talent to portray all of that, and do it with comedy. A romantic comedy that is cute, funny, romantic, mature and where you actually welcome the story line - what more could you ask for?