Film File - The Switch
She might have lost the love of her life to Angelina, but Jennifer Aniston still has that innate comedic ability that has dimmed little since her long-gone days with Chandler, Monica and Joey on 'Friends'. Like her former mates on the long running TV series, Jen's had a few bloopers in the film line, but always manages to rise above even the most mundane writing to invest her roles with a bright breezy presence that often goes a long way to saving the movie. In 'The Switch' she manages a similar feat. Neurotic and pessimistic Wally Mars (Jason Bateman) takes little satisfaction from his financially successful career as a trader on the New York Stock Exchange with his partner Leonard (Jeff Goldblum). Regardless of his smarts with figures, big pay cheques do little to shake his fundamentally gloomy perspective on the world. The one bright spot is his best friend Kassie (Aniston), a beautiful and funny companion, who, unfortunately for Wally, is content being just friends. But when Kassie, in her early 40s and single, announces that she wants to have a baby and doesn't plan to let the lack of a husband or boyfriend stand in the way, Wally is bursting with anticipation at what he expects to be asked. That is, until Kassie destroys his world by explaining she wants him to help her find the perfect sperm donor, and it's definitely not him. It doesn't take Kassie long to find 'Mr Right For The Job' - the charming Roland (Patrick Wilson). However, things get complicated when Wally does something wild at Kassie's 'insemination party' and makes a life-changing switch before passing out. Oblivious to anything amiss, Kassie gets pregnant and moves back home to Minnesota to raise her baby. Fast forward seven years, and Kassie moves back to New York, where Wally, still neurotic and single, gets acquainted with her precocious son, Sebastian (Thomas Robinson). Convinced the boy is his due to a number of mirror-image tics, Wally needs to decide if he's going to tell Kassie the truth about that infamous switch made at her insemination party all those years ago. Based on the short story, 'Baster', written by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jeffrey Eugenides, author of 'The Virgin Suicides' and 'Middlesex', and published in The New Yorker in 1996, the option was picked up by producers Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa who have financed some of the most popular and critically acclaimed films of recent years including 'Little Miss Sunshine', 'Election' and 'Bee Season' . While not quite up the the same standard, 'The Switch' does have enough good moments to be worth the €10 admission charge. Aniston, embodying the conundrum of many a modern woman - wanting a baby but not necessarily a man - brings the usual all-American woman's qualities to bear here, just as she did in 'Love Happens' and 'Management'. The camera likes her, and though the advances of age are creeping in, she's still a joy to behold in every frame as an actress perfect for comedy drama. Bateman, no slouch himself when it comes to the funny stuff as seen in 'Extract' and 'Couples' Retreat', provides a reasonable chemistry to keep things bubbling along. The main hole in The Switch's plot is the fact that we all know what's happened - but the storyline takes far too long to present the evidence to the lady in question. We lurch from scene to scene waiting for the shoe to fall, only to have the plot spool out another five minutes of repetitive mirth. Overall, though, The Switch is an upbeat outing with enough laughs and decent cameos from Goldblum and Lewis to keep us engaged.