The Switch (2010)

While this movie could have been a great story of a guy fighting his way out of the “Friend Zone” to be with his best friend, it just turned out to be an annoyingly predictable bunch of nothing. Jason Bateman is probably the sole reason for anyone to see this movie but even he is chained down from being the Jason we all know and love in order to play the most pathetic human being on the face of the earth. Did I say pathetic? I actually meant disgustingly sappy, weak, girlfriend stuck in a man’s body, piss boy for Jennifer Aniston’s Kassie.

The story is simple and funny in it’s own twisted way but the true love story of The Switch is more between Jason Bateman’s Wally Mars and Kassie Larson’s (Jennifer Aniston) son Sebastian (Thomas Robinson). The scenes with these two make the movie but sadly that is about the only positive thing I have to say about the Switch. The plot is absolutely lazy, filled with holes and makes absolutely no sense in terms of the people playing.

Light Spoilers to Explain why the story was garbage:

First of all there is absolutely no reason why Wally Mars should not have been married, engaged or by the least sleeping with Kassie by the time the movie starts. The story spins poor Wally as being hopelessly trapped on the friend-zone and he is very much Kassie’s mock girlfriend as he spends a ton of time with her sans getting naked and doing the horizontal axis smash. Even if such a pathetic male as Wally existed, there would be no way in hell that he would put up with half the crap this airhead put him through within the movie such as playing babysitter, attending her artificial insemination party and making friendly with the sperm donor. Total bull from fairy tale land!

The story is bad folks, extremely bad and to keep the comedy part of the “romance comedy” element we are treated to the standard BFF’s of the main two lovers – this time it is Leonard (Jeff Goldblum) who coincidentally is Wally’s boss (yes he is THAT pathetic), and Kassie’s ditsy buddy Debbie (Juliette Lewis), both welcome additions to the story but ultimately unnecessary in the small amount of screen time they do inhabit. Patrick Wilson plays Roland the well meaning sperm donor and to add to my annoyance with the plot, he turns out to be a literal superman with his positivity and patience when it comes to Kassie.

See that is the main thing folks, I don’t care how cute and sweet you believe Jennifer Aniston to be, the things that Kassie does in the movie only to be tolerated by the males in her life are just unreal. It was painful to sit through The Switch and when the cliché ending happens they do not even attempt to mask the unity with any time of build-up or realism, nope, it just happens and we are supposed to accept it. Absolutely awful, this felt as if it was rushed or shortened to meet a deadline, it was just not satisfactory. Jennifer Aniston hardcore Stans only for this one, or find yourself angry and disappointed like this viewer.