The Switch – Review
While The Switch isn’t that original, or really even attempts to be, it hits some of the notes to make it pleasing for a romantic-comedy, even if it’s all very standard. The poster or the trailer might make the film appear to be a bit more leaning towards some gross-out areas, with Jason Bateman looking disgustedly at a little cup filled with someone else’s you-know-what, but it never goes fully in that direction, thankfully. It just didn’t need too. The film finds its heart when Bateman realizes Jennifer Aniston’s kid is his (I don’t think I need to give out plot synopsis, do I?) as the film lightly tackles the non-traditional family situation.
Aniston is an independent woman; career-oriented, yet her clock is ticking and she just wants a kid. Even the hardest feminist could understand her desire. But like all rom-com, something goofy happens that sets in motion the rest of the film, and while Bateman’s love for her as a friend and perhaps as something more, seems genuine, the hook of the film – he replaces someone else’s stuff in that cup with his stuff – enters a unique position the film never tackles. It’s rape, and this will irk many, but the film never asks for the characters or us essentially, to consider these ramifications, so it’s easier to let it slide.
What the film does ask for, is for the audience to get caught up into Bateman’s desire to be with Aniston within the safety net of the rom-com conventions. By that notion, the film is entirely predictable and rather generic. On the flip side though, we get a great cast with good chemistry, which makes the plot’s formula feel like a nice blanket on a cool evening. Better yet is a feeling we’ll have halfway through: Oh, how wonderful it is to have Jeff Goldblum back (outside of TV appearance his last real credit of interest was in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou in 2004). When Bateman and Goldblum are on screen, we’re getting the film’s best moments and a neurotic double-shot of quirk. It might be too run-of-the-mill for some, but The Switch does what a rom-com needs or is suppose to do.
Rating: 
