Dirs. Josh Gordon/Will Speck , USA, 2010, 101 mins
Cast: Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, Jeff Goldblum, Juliette Lewis, Patrick Wilson, Bryce Rob inson
Review by Maria Sell
Many speculations about Jennifer Aniston's desire to have children have recently circulated in the media, so her latest role as a single woman in her early forties, who decides to venture into single motherhood, seems somehow timely and fitting for the actress.
Aniston plays unmarried Kassie Larson, who has a successful career but longs to have children. As her biological clock is ticking, she decides to go it on her own... with the help of a turkey baster.
She reveals this plan to her best friend Wally (Jason Bateman), who isn't exactly thrilled, but while his re press ed feelings for Kassie are obvious to his boss and good friend Leonard (Jeff Goldblum), neither he nor Aniston are aware of them.
At her pregnancy party he unsurprisingly gets drunk and inadvertently loses the sperm sample of the alpha-male donor, Roland ( Patrick Wilson). In a predictable turn of events he replaces it with his own donation, but come the morning after, he conveniently fails to remember any of this. Once pregnant, Aniston decides to leave New York . Several years later, when she returns to the city with her son Sebastian (Thomas Rob inson) in tow, Wally begins to notice crucial similarities between himself and Sebastian with only the audience knowing the reason for that.
The story treads a well-worn path in which two characters have to overcome deceit and disappointment before love wins the day – this being the type of romantic comedy which Hollywood does so well. So the story does not stray far from the conventions of the genre with the audience knowing the inevitable outcome. But the idea itself makes it very much suited to our times, where the traditional approach to starting a family has been pushed aside by our fast-paced lives.
While the chemistry between Bateman and Aniston isn't always convincing – it is difficult to see Bateman as anything other than a male best friend – they are two likeable leads. What cannot be denied is the natural chemistry between Bateman and Rob inson, which is however somewhat overemphasised to the point of feeling somewhat laboured at times. The scene in the aquarium, where both characters stand side by side in the exact same manner, springs to mind.
Goldblum, who does an excellent job of playing Jeff Goldblum, receives the plum lines in the script and almost steals the show, whereas Juliette Lewis as his female counterpart and Aniston's best friend feels somewhat redundant. Fresh from his villainous turn in the recent big screen adaptation of The A-Team , Patrick Wilson is stripped bare of what charisma he brought to that role, playing a Matthew McConaughey-esque hunk, who is the sperm and love rival to Bateman.
While The Switch may not be the best film to convert a non-believer to the rom-com genre, it is nevertheless an entertaining one within its field and one which won't feel like a waste of your time.
|
.jpg)
