'THE SWITCH': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)
The second artificial insemination film I've seen in as many weeks (after 'THE KIDS ARE Alright'). This one has a great premise that turns into a predictable routine comedy but the performances are great and the directing is pretty impressive which results in a very funny and moving film. It's directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck (who also co-directed 'BLADES OF GLORY' and the Oscar nominated short film 'CULTURE') and written by All Loeb (who also wrote the drama suspense films '21' and the upcoming 'WALLSTREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS'). It's based on a short story by Jeffrey Eugenides (who also wrote the novel 'THE VIRGIN SUICIDES').
The film stars Jason Bateman as a neurotic insecure pessimist (or realist as he likes to call it) named Wally who is in love with his best friend Kassie (played by Jennifer Aniston) but is too afraid to tell her. Kassie is approaching 40 and really wants a child and realizes that with age her fertility rate declines. So unwilling to wait for her dream man to come along she decides to take the path of artificial insemination. Wally thinks this is a bad idea and tells her so but still cant confess his feelings for her so at her pregnancy party he gets hammered and 'hijacks' her sperm donation; he switches the sperm donor's (played by Patrick Wilson) sperm with his own. Since he's blacked out he forgets all about it but seven years later when Kassie and her son (played by Thomas Robinson) move back into town, after Kassie moves away before her son is born, Wally starts to notice striking resemblances between the boy and himself. This of course leads to a lot of drama.
After the great premise the movie pretty much writes itself and you can see everything coming but it's still fun to watch, very humorous and touching. I'm a big Jason Bateman fan and enjoy watching almost anything he's in. He's by far the star of the movie, he has almost twice the screen time that Aniston does (even though he's second billed to the bigger star). He has some great relate-able and touching character development and he and supporting player Jeff Goldblum are hilarious. Aniston is good at what little she has to do but her character is underdeveloped. The story focuses much more on Wally. The boy (Robinson) is impressive for a child actor but a lot of that is often due to good directing as well. A good director can get honest emotion and reactions from a child actor that's not too insecure to be themselves. Wilson is good as the antagonist and it's refreshing to see his character not dumb-ed down and actually portrayed as a likable guy. The screenplay does become somewhat clichéd but it's decent and the directing and acting are impressive. It's a romantic comedy that's definitely worth passing your time with.
Watch our review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YDpWRaEnYQ
The second artificial insemination film I've seen in as many weeks (after 'THE KIDS ARE Alright'). This one has a great premise that turns into a predictable routine comedy but the performances are great and the directing is pretty impressive which results in a very funny and moving film. It's directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck (who also co-directed 'BLADES OF GLORY' and the Oscar nominated short film 'CULTURE') and written by All Loeb (who also wrote the drama suspense films '21' and the upcoming 'WALLSTREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS'). It's based on a short story by Jeffrey Eugenides (who also wrote the novel 'THE VIRGIN SUICIDES').
The film stars Jason Bateman as a neurotic insecure pessimist (or realist as he likes to call it) named Wally who is in love with his best friend Kassie (played by Jennifer Aniston) but is too afraid to tell her. Kassie is approaching 40 and really wants a child and realizes that with age her fertility rate declines. So unwilling to wait for her dream man to come along she decides to take the path of artificial insemination. Wally thinks this is a bad idea and tells her so but still cant confess his feelings for her so at her pregnancy party he gets hammered and 'hijacks' her sperm donation; he switches the sperm donor's (played by Patrick Wilson) sperm with his own. Since he's blacked out he forgets all about it but seven years later when Kassie and her son (played by Thomas Robinson) move back into town, after Kassie moves away before her son is born, Wally starts to notice striking resemblances between the boy and himself. This of course leads to a lot of drama.
After the great premise the movie pretty much writes itself and you can see everything coming but it's still fun to watch, very humorous and touching. I'm a big Jason Bateman fan and enjoy watching almost anything he's in. He's by far the star of the movie, he has almost twice the screen time that Aniston does (even though he's second billed to the bigger star). He has some great relate-able and touching character development and he and supporting player Jeff Goldblum are hilarious. Aniston is good at what little she has to do but her character is underdeveloped. The story focuses much more on Wally. The boy (Robinson) is impressive for a child actor but a lot of that is often due to good directing as well. A good director can get honest emotion and reactions from a child actor that's not too insecure to be themselves. Wilson is good as the antagonist and it's refreshing to see his character not dumb-ed down and actually portrayed as a likable guy. The screenplay does become somewhat clichéd but it's decent and the directing and acting are impressive. It's a romantic comedy that's definitely worth passing your time with.
Watch our review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YDpWRaEnYQ