![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/culturedarm.com\/staging\/5793\/wp-content\/uploads\/The-Switch-Cover-1.jpg?resize=696%2C464&ssl=1\")
<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\n<\/i><\/i><\/i> (3\/4)<\/strong><\/p>\n Directors: Josh Gordon, Will Speck | Producers: Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa | Screenplay: Allan Loeb | Based on: \u2018Baster\u2019 by Jeffrey Eugenides | Starring: Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, Patrick Wilson, Juliette Lewis, Jeff Goldblum, Thomas Robinson | Music: Alex Wurman | Cinematography: Jess Hall | Editor: John Axelrad<\/strong><\/p>\n Kassie Larson (Jennifer Aniston) is in her thirties, and she\u2019s single, and with no romantic prospects on the horizon she decides she can no longer wait to have a child. She talks the matter over with her best friend Wally Mars (Jason Bateman) \u2013 they dated six years ago, and though it didn\u2019t work out they\u2019ve got along swimmingly ever since \u2013 but despite his reservations, her mind is made up. She\u2019s not averse to a degree of intimacy: eschewing a bank, she wants a sperm donor she can meet. Wally does the chivalrous thing and makes the offer, but gently Kassie notes that he\u2019s neurotic, and besides isn\u2019t accepting sperm from a friend more than a little weird?<\/p>\n Instead Kassie opts for the charming and hunky and gainfully employed Roland, who is married, but he and his wife, an aspiring English professor, could use the extra cash. Bizarrely \u2013 do such things really exist? \u2013 Kassie throws an insemination party, where between cocktails and canap\u00e9s and light conversation Roland slips off to the bathroom to make his deposit inside of a plastic cup. Whereupon Wally, still put out by the whole ordeal, stumbles drunkenly into the very same bathroom, spills Roland\u2019s seed into the sink, and manufactures his own hasty replacement, thereby providing us with the titular \u2018switch\u2019. Kassie returns to her hometown of Minnesota to have the baby, but seven years later with six-year-old Sebastian in tow she is back in New York.<\/p>\n Based on a short story by Jeffrey Eugenides, entitled \u2018Baster\u2019 and published in The New Yorker <\/em>in 1996, in its adaptation for the big screen The Switch<\/em> is as formulaic as they come. We are never in doubt as to the outcome, and the well-worn path of conflict resolution follows every signpost, in a confection that\u2019s decidedly sweet. But the convoluted premise is handled fairly gently by directors Josh Gordon and Will Speck, and with the aid of a delightful cast, there are shoots and blossoms: for a modern romantic comedy, The Switch<\/em> is lighter and better than most.<\/p>\n The movie tends to err on the side of caution: inevitably there are moments of smutty humour surrounding Kassie\u2019s insemination and Wally\u2019s mishandling of the cup, but The Switch<\/em> never parodies human behaviour, its slapstick is restrained, and its relationships make sense. Jeff Goldblum and Juliette Lewis are delicious foils for Bateman and Aniston, respectively Leonard and Debbie, Wally\u2019s attentive if ever so slightly supercilious boss and Kassie\u2019s caustic best friend. Crucially Patrick Wilson as Roland isn\u2019t some sleazeball pulling the wool over people\u2019s eyes, nor is he a hapless fop: instead he\u2019s a decent guy slightly fraying on the outside of the movie\u2019s core dynamics. Thomas Robinson as Sebastian is charming without being cloying in the mould of most child actors, and he brings surprising emotional depth.<\/p>\n Bateman hits every single note as the relationship between Wally and Sebastian progresses from friendship to fatherhood with desperate uncertainty in between: The Switch<\/em> is really Bateman\u2019s film, and for an actor who often promises much while falling into familiar schlock comic roles, it\u2019s fair to say that this is a standout performance. There is an attempt towards an Up in the Air<\/em>-esque framing narrative, aphoristic and seeking to elevate what we\u2019ve seen, and it doesn\u2019t come off, the script isn\u2019t up to task, but it\u2019s so slight that it\u2019s of no real consequence. The Switch<\/em> also boasts some nice location work, in restaurants, at a climbing centre, and in snapshots it does provide the impression of a living and breathing city.<\/p>\n \u2605\u2605\u2605 (3 out of 4 stars) – Kassie Larson (Jennifer Aniston) is in her thirties, and she’s single, and with no romantic prospects on the horizon she decides she can no longer wait to have a child. She talks the matter over with her best friend Wally Mars (Jason Bateman) – they dated six years ago, and though it didn’t work out they’ve got along swimmingly ever since…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4010,3875,4039],"tags":[3840,4774,4777,4773,4775,4776,4778],"class_list":{"0":"post-19235","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-american-cinema","8":"category-movies","9":"category-movie-review","10":"tag-comedy","11":"tag-jason-bateman","12":"tag-jeff-goldblum","13":"tag-jennifer-aniston","14":"tag-juliette-lewis","15":"tag-patrick-wilson","16":"tag-the-switch"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/culturedarm.com\/staging\/5793\/wp-content\/uploads\/The-Switch-Poster-2.jpg?resize=696%2C1032&ssl=1\")
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