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The Switch (2010)

Miramax/Lionsgate
Blu-ray Disc Released: 3/15/2010

All Ratings out of

Movie:
1/2
Video:
1/2
Audio:
1/2
Extras:


Review by Mike Long, Posted on 3/12/2011

I'm sure that Patrick Wilson is a swell guy in real life, but has become the kiss of death for many movies. If you look at his resume, you will see that few of the movies in which he's appeared have turned a profit, and those that did didn't exactly light up the box office. Movies like The Alamo, Running with Scissors, Morning Glory, The A-Team, and Watchmen had big expectations and underperformed in theaters. (Despite the fact that Watchmen is a good movie. However, Morning Glory is not.) It's gotten to the point where I'm afraid to watch a movie in which Wilson appears, for fear that it will be a stinker. Fortunately, that isn't the case with The Switch.

Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman star in The Switch as Kassie and Wally, old friends who live in Manhattan. Wally is clearly attracted to Kassie, but they have never dated. Kassie announces that she wants to have a child and sets out to find a sperm donor. Wally is hurt that she doesn't consider him. When Kassie finds the donor, Roland (Patrick Wilson), she throws a party to celebrate the event. Wally proceeds to get very drunk and while in the bathroom, he finds Roland's "sample" and replaces it with his own. When Kassie learns that she is pregnant, she decides that she doesn't want to raise her child in New York and leaves. Wally is despondent, but moves on which his life. Seven years later, Kassie comes back to town, with her son, Sebastian (Thomas Robinson), who is the spitting image of Wally. As Wally gets to know Sebastian, the events of that drunken night come back to him and he must decide if he can tell Kassie the truth.

The Switch is one of those movies which wasn't what I had expected it be based on the marketing that I'd seen. This has to do with the big plot point in the story. When a movie has to do with hijacked semen, one would automatically expect that we are moving into Farrelly Brothers territory. But, that's not what The Switch is. Now, is that particular scene played for high comedy? Of course it is. There's probably no way to take the high-road when dealing with something like that, so without ever getting gross, the movie makes the scene as absurd as possible. Even given the fact that we all know what is happening, the movie insists on using euphemisms.

What we get with The Switch is a surprisingly sweet movie. The relationship between Wally and Kassie is well-written and the movie does a fine job of pushing us into hoping that they wind up together. Still, the first act feels a bit stale. However, once Sebastian arrives, the movie takes a very nice turn. Wally and Sebastian getting to know one another becomes the focus of the movie and its very refreshing to see a father (figure) portrayed as sensitive and caring. Again, at first Wally doesn't remember what he did, so we watch him realize that Sebastian is his mirror image. We get the feeling that if Wally didn't care for the kid, then the decision of whether or not to tell Kassie the truth wouldn't be so hard.

So, The Switch is far more emotional than I'd expected it to be, but it's not as funny as I'd thought it would be. The movie was directed by Josh Gordon & Will Speck, the team behind the silly and irreverent Blades of Glory. Perhaps it was Will Ferrell sparking the crazy comedy in that movie, because we get none of that here. Yes, there are some funny moments in The Switch, but they most come from clever dialogue. The closest that the movie comes to anything out of the norm is Jeff Goldblum, who plays Wally’s boss. As usual, Goldblum acts as if he has an idea of what the scene is about and then proceeds to make-up his own dialogue. Some of his reactions and quips about Wally’s predicament are very funny.

While The Switch made a few bucks at the box-office, it pretty much came and went without any fanfare and I think that most chalked it up as another movie misfire for Jennifer Aniston. (Clearly, they weren’t taking the Patrick Wilson factor into account.) This is one of those movies which deserves a second chance on home video, hoping that people will understand that this movie is drama than comedy.

The Switch will change your views on children's birthday cakes on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Miramax/Lionsgate. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the Disc contains a VC-1 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 30 Mbps. The image is very sharp and clear, showing trace amounts of grain and no defects from the source material. The colors look very good and the image is never overly dark or bright. The picture shows nice detail and we can see textures on objects. The depth is fairly good as well. The Disc contains a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 3.8 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The stereo effects are good, most notably when Wally and Kassie are on the street. These same scenes provide some nice surround sound effects, as does the rock-climbing party scene. The music cues sound good as well.

The Switch Blu-ray Disc contains a few extras. "The Switch Conceived" (15 minutes) is a making-of featurette which contains interviews with the actors and the filmmakers, as well as some on-set footage. They talk about how the movie came about, the tone of the film, the actors and the characters. There are some outtakes here and I learned that the movie was originally called "The Baster". The Disc contains ten DELETED SCENES which run about 25 minutes -- that running time includes introductions by Gordon and Speck, the directors. There aren't any gems here, but a few fill in some blanks in the story. Whoa, Dick from High Fidelity was cut out of this? Why! Finally, we have a 4-minute BLOOPER REEL.

Review by Mike Long.  Copyright 2011.