Review | The Switch
Credit: Macall Polay
Us Rating: **
Opens: Friday 8/20
The key to enjoying this rom-com is to view it as an offbeat Jason Bateman vehicle featuring Jennifer Aniston as his love interest, rather than the reverse. Indeed, Aniston treads on all-too-familiar ground here; there isn't an exasperated facial expression or hair flip we haven't already seen 100 times. She plays a desperately single career girl named Kassie who gets pregnant via artificial insemination. Once with child, she leaves NYC -- and her cynical best friend, Wally (Bateman) -- for the Midwest. Seven years later, Kassie returns and promptly lands in a triangle with bland sperm donor Roland (Patrick Wilson) and Wally, who can't find the courage to declare his love. We all know where this is going, right?
Also, beware of massive plot holes: Sensible Kassie just lets Roland's deposit sit in a plastic cup in her bathroom during a raucous party, and she and Wally apparently never visited or called each other during her long NYC hiatus. Unlikely! Still, Bateman's winning comic performance and his endearing rapport with Kassie's son, Sebastian -- who shares his insecurities -- give a sense of what this film could have been.
-- THELMA ADAMS
Tell Us What You Think
4at least Angelina can act, and has an Oscar to prove it....poor Jen will just toss her hair, pout, put on a bikini to match her tan, and whine...
I really like her face.... God bless you Jen!!!!
Opinions are like a.s.s.h.o.l.e.s -- everyone has one. I don't care what anyone else thinks (especially people who critique movies for a living). I like her movies and will continue to see them. All this talk about her making the same movie over and over is just ridiculous. Who cares! There's a market for it obviously, or else producers and studios wouldn't continue to invest in her as the lead female in their movies. Talk is so cheap. She is still very successful, and that speaks to all of the negativity that is always written here about Jen.
Why does this website always hail angelina for playing the same role over and over again (crazy, pouting b!tch with a gun or two) yet when jen does it it's wrong all of a sudden? us mag, rate the movie being reviewed, not jen's previous work!