The Switch (Blu-ray)
Kristy Sturdivant
March 15th, 2011
I think everyone has one or two films that you can sit down to watch at any time of day and leave with this nice warm and comforting feeling that just relaxes you and makes everything seem okay with the world. Most likely these “comfort” films are comedies or romantic comedies for women and probably action films for men, but I think THE SWITCH can work for either gender. It has that strong male lead that is in a weird situation with a good overall story, but has just enough romance thrown in there for a good date night.
Wally Mars (Jason Bateman) is your typical neurotic, single man that you could find on any street corner in any city. His idiosyncrasies are endearing but also often hover around the point of obnoxious and annoying. Wally’s best friend, Kassie Larson (Jennifer Aniston), is an unmarried 40-year-old woman who has decided to go ahead and have a kid sans significant other and Wally isn’t totally on board. During Kassie’s pregnancy party, Wally gets a little too drunk and accidentally switches the donor specimen for his own. Long story short, Kassie ends up getting pregnant, moves away but returns to New York where Wally learns that the kid is really his and he must confess his transgressions to Kassie.
First off, the acting in this film is really well done. The brunt of the movie focuses on Wally and his performance is fantastic and his character is so easy to like. Aniston pretty much plays a supporting character and although she too did a fantastic job, make no mistake this is a Jason Bateman film. Throw in the talented Jeff Goldblum, Juliette Lewis, Patrick Wilson and newcomer Thomas Robinson (who plays the adorable kid Sebastian) and you have a well-rounded supporting cast with each member having just enough screen time to keep you interested but not enough to make us sick of them.
Easily the highlight of this film is the interaction between Wally and Sebastian. If anything, I think this film could have benefited with more of their relationship as opposed to the relationship between Kassie and Wally. The times we get to see how much Wally and Sebastian are really alike are the parts that shine through and leave the audience with that warm and fuzzy feeling. In fact, it wouldn’t have been so bad to not have Patrick Wilson’s character (who is a romantic interest for Aniston) and just focus more on the relationship between our three main characters and how they have to learn to deal with each other in this new situation.
Even though this film garnered a lot of criticism for its content (single woman having a kid) I think it was a really touching film that I will come back to just because it makes me feel good. If anything, I think this film proves that Jason Bateman can really hold his own on screen and needs more leading roles. Goodness knows we need some decent male leads for romantic comedies and Bateman is perfect, just as long as he doesn’t do them too often.
BLU-RAY REVIEW
Video (1080p HD): Nice clear image, but the colors didn’t pop as much as they could have but that may be because this isn’t a bubble gum romantic comedy.
Audio (5.1 DTS-HD): This is a mostly dialogue driven movie, but the surround sound is utilized at times throughout the film.
The Switch Conceived (14:37): This is a making-of featurette that gives a little detail about the story the film was based on (from an article in the New Yorker) as well as the directors take on their rendition of a romantic comedy.
Deleted and Alternate Scenes (25:07): These come with a little introduction from directors Josh Gordon and Will Speck, in which they give exact reasons as to why these were cut or shortened. Plus we get an alternate ending which was totally different and would have changed the tone of the film.
Bloopers (3:46): Typical gag reel.
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