The Switch Review

• 11th Jan 2011

The initial impressions of The Switch on reading the press notes and looking at the DVD/Blu-ray cover is this is yet another romcom amongst a myriad of others. I began watching wanting to dislike it; it may seem in the same vein as the recent The Back-Up Plan, but the script (written by Allan Loeb from the short story, ‘Blaster’ by Jeffrey Eugenides) has a much more caustic edge to it. It is told from the P.O.V. of Bateman’s character, Wally Mars, and we hear his bitter observances of life. Bateman’s character bookends the story with his philosophical narration about life and the nature of existence with the backdrop of New Yorkers running around the Big Apple amidst this “cervical mucous”. Cue the films premiss which, it has to be said takes a while to get there. The story is about two professional, long time, New York friends in their late thirties, Wally and Kassie. When Kassie hears her biological clock ticking she decides it is time for her to have a baby and asks Wally to help her find a sperm donor rather than a boyfriend. She decides to hold an ‘I’m getting pregnant’ party when the sperm donor is found in the form of the handsome, if shallow (and we later learn fake) Roland (played by Patrick Wilson). At the party Wally’s drink is spiked and in his intoxicated state he goes to the bathroom where he spots the donor’s ‘junk’ in a cup and decides to switch it for his own. Eventually, the pregnant Kassie (at the first attempt it would seem) decides to leave the city and go back to her home town in Nebraska. Cue seven years later and Kassie returns to New York with a new job offer and her now 6-year-old son, Sebastian in tow. In that time it seems, she has lost contact with Wally. After a strained start, Sebastian and Wally eventually bond and Wally soon realises that the boy may be his (having suffered amnesia from the party), but Kassie has started dating Roland.

It is Bateman’s performance that drives the plot and the film, rather than Aniston who for the most part is just a feminine foil for Bateman’s Wally. This is where one of the films failings lie, in that it is hard to understand the nature of Wally and Kassie’s relationship, leaving the viewer to wonder why this pair would hang out together and why in the end they should end up together (sorry about the plot spoiler, but I don’t think the end is any surprise to those reading this review). As we witness in the extras, presented by directors Josh Gordon and Will Speck, there are two alternate endings of the film. The one kept in the film is a little more uplifting than the more philosophical one that accompanies the extras. It shows a happy family unit celebrating Sebastian’s birthday one year hence (it was actually shot six months after filming had ceased and as a result the actor playing Sebastian appears that little bit older). The alternate ending has the family unit sitting on the steps of their New York brownstone with Wally reflecting once again on the meaning of life and just stopping short on talking about its futility.

The last twenty minutes of the film move away from comedy and veers more to serious drama, but is never the less better than other recent offerings such as 2007’s Knocked Up that was good for the first half, but descends into boredom and is overlong; not a feeling one gets from The Switch. Both Aniston and Bateman have failed to reach their full potential in cinema. Bateman is good and best remembered as the would-be love rat husband in Juno while Aniston was great in such excellent indie dramas as Office Space, rather than Friends something which may have stifled an otherwise strong cinema/acting career. Also included in the cast is Juliette Lewis as Kassie’s annoying best friend and a typically acerbic Jeff Goldblum as Wally’s friend and former boss.

Even if it isn’t a modern classic The Switch is a pleasant surprise for anyone wanting a good escapist comedy even if it does drift between romcom, gross out comedy and even serious drama.

Chris Hick