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Let's all agree that comedies based around sperm banks or sperm donations should be banned from our fair shores forever. It's the sort of concept which sounds funny at first, but grows increasingly forced and skin-crawling as time goes on. In the case of The Switch it transforms some legitimately good material into a distressingly mixed bag. Without the semen-based wackiness, the film soars; with it... well, the less said the better.
Indeed, the middle third takes place without any reference to the conceit at all, and if you could chop away all the surrounding scenes, it might be worth viewing in and of itself. Before then, however, we must suffer through yet another contrived set up to explain why two people hopelessly in love can't actually be together. They are Wally Mars (Jason Bateman) and Kassie Larson (Jennifer Aniston): kind-hearted neurotic and motivated go-getter, respectively. After years of failing to find Mr. Right, she opts for artificial insemination; as her de facto BFF, he gets to listen to the plan with a disapproving grimace on his face. When she finds a donor, she throws a party to celebrate: topped by the lucky man jerking off in a back room and Kassie injecting it with a turkey baster, while his wife and various assembled friends boogie the night away out front.
The Creepy? You're soaking in it! It gets worse when a drunken Wally fumbles away the precious man juice and has to replace it with a donation of his own. He goes on his way without a second thought and Kassie heads west to have the baby. Directors Josh Gordon and Will Speck stave off the worst of it thanks to copious chemistry from the leads, but the sheer contrivance of the scenario combines with its overall ooginess to torpedo any humor that manages to reach the surface.
And then something amazing happens. Seven years later, Kassie returns, with a son in tow who looks and acts just like Wally. He's played by child actor Thomas Robinson, staring pensively out at the world as if it will devour him whole at any moment. Initially spying a kindred spirit, Wally begins to bond with him, even as Kassie takes up with the now-divorced birth father. Robinson absolutely owns every scene he's in, and Bateman responds to the boy's presence in kind. Their rapport allows Wally to slowly emerge from his self-absorbed shell, while providing the boy with the role model he so desperately needs.
These sequences may have come out of a different movie: something sweet and wise, with a few gentle laughs and some nice things to say about fatherhood. They dominate the center of The Switch and almost make you forget the awkward, distasteful introduction required to get there. Gordon and Speck can't maintain it of course, substituting the quiet joys they labored so hard to create for a contrived crisis and too-easy resolution. But even as The Switch falters, they still combine the best elements agreeably with the worst, bravely maintaining a few shreds of goodwill despite the increasingly shopworn plot.
Aniston and Bateman hold up their end of the bargain, with a mutual sense of comic timing and a familiarity with the genre that helps usher it past the weaker spots. Patrick Wilson does his best with an otherwise thankless role as the donor, and Jeff Goldblum almost steals the show as Wally's seemingly only friend. In the end, however, The Switch belongs to Robinson, an unlikely anchor in an overtly adult farce that would be utterly lost without him. Nice going kid. We're keeping an eye on you.
Indeed, the middle third takes place without any reference to the conceit at all, and if you could chop away all the surrounding scenes, it might be worth viewing in and of itself. Before then, however, we must suffer through yet another contrived set up to explain why two people hopelessly in love can't actually be together. They are Wally Mars (Jason Bateman) and Kassie Larson (Jennifer Aniston): kind-hearted neurotic and motivated go-getter, respectively. After years of failing to find Mr. Right, she opts for artificial insemination; as her de facto BFF, he gets to listen to the plan with a disapproving grimace on his face. When she finds a donor, she throws a party to celebrate: topped by the lucky man jerking off in a back room and Kassie injecting it with a turkey baster, while his wife and various assembled friends boogie the night away out front.
The Creepy? You're soaking in it! It gets worse when a drunken Wally fumbles away the precious man juice and has to replace it with a donation of his own. He goes on his way without a second thought and Kassie heads west to have the baby. Directors Josh Gordon and Will Speck stave off the worst of it thanks to copious chemistry from the leads, but the sheer contrivance of the scenario combines with its overall ooginess to torpedo any humor that manages to reach the surface.
And then something amazing happens. Seven years later, Kassie returns, with a son in tow who looks and acts just like Wally. He's played by child actor Thomas Robinson, staring pensively out at the world as if it will devour him whole at any moment. Initially spying a kindred spirit, Wally begins to bond with him, even as Kassie takes up with the now-divorced birth father. Robinson absolutely owns every scene he's in, and Bateman responds to the boy's presence in kind. Their rapport allows Wally to slowly emerge from his self-absorbed shell, while providing the boy with the role model he so desperately needs.
These sequences may have come out of a different movie: something sweet and wise, with a few gentle laughs and some nice things to say about fatherhood. They dominate the center of The Switch and almost make you forget the awkward, distasteful introduction required to get there. Gordon and Speck can't maintain it of course, substituting the quiet joys they labored so hard to create for a contrived crisis and too-easy resolution. But even as The Switch falters, they still combine the best elements agreeably with the worst, bravely maintaining a few shreds of goodwill despite the increasingly shopworn plot.
Aniston and Bateman hold up their end of the bargain, with a mutual sense of comic timing and a familiarity with the genre that helps usher it past the weaker spots. Patrick Wilson does his best with an otherwise thankless role as the donor, and Jeff Goldblum almost steals the show as Wally's seemingly only friend. In the end, however, The Switch belongs to Robinson, an unlikely anchor in an overtly adult farce that would be utterly lost without him. Nice going kid. We're keeping an eye on you.
