"The Switch" Movie Review

"The Switch"

Movie Review

By Christopher Smith

The week's most disappointing release is the Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman movie "The Switch," which comes too close to the Jennifer Lopez movie "The Back-Up Plan" to be timely or relevant.

Add to that a fair bit of bad writing, only passing chemistry between Aniston and Bateman, not to mention enough predictability to induce audience fatigue, and you have a movie that doesn't offer a single surprise.

The film follows Kassie and Wally, two best friends who once had a shot a relationship, blew it, but who now think so much of each other, their relationship is stronger--even if Wally remains in love with Kassie.

Trouble is, Kassie's biological clock is ticking. She wants a baby, she needs someone's sperm to make it happen, but instead of asking Wally for the donation, she goes to Roland (Patrick Wilson), an athletic stud who offers up the goods at an insemination party (you read that correctly) thrown by the hot mess that is Juliette Lewis.

Trouble is, Wally gets drunk at the party. Worse, he knocks Roland's sperm into the sink, where it drips down the drink. What's a good friend to do? Do the math. Cue the insemination. And bring on years' worth of lies.

Later, after time away in Minnesota, where she raised her neurotic son, Sebastian (Thomas Robinson), Kassie returns to New York with him. And here is where the movie picks up. Bateman and Robinson have the chemistry Bateman should have shared with Aniston (it snaps, it’s real), who is just playing another version of similar characters she's played in "The Bounty Hunter," "Love Happens" and "He's Just Not that Into You." As any fan of her independent work knows, Aniston has talent and she’s beyond likable, so the question is why is she squandering that talent?

It seems as if she's more adept at being a tabloid star than she is at being a movie star. The former will keep her name in the news, sure, but the latter will keep her name in lights and, if she chooses better projects, it also will give her a longer, more interesting career.

Grade: Grade C-

View WeekinRewind.com's preview of "The Switch" here. What are your thoughts?