The Switch (2010)

Cute movie, cute kid, fun Bateman and hilarious Lewis/Goldblum.....BUT! Yes, we all know the boring addition to the team: Aniston. Her. Again. Why oh why did they cast her? She brings no soul to her character, literally CAN'T pull the mother act. She put me off 20 minutes after I started watching it.

I was not expecting to like this show very much, but it literally blew me away. This child actor who plays Sebastian is phenomenal, and absolutely adorable. At his age, his acting skills just blew me away. Jennifer Aniston plays her usual quirky self, but she was really great, and very classy. Jason Bateman was fantastic, and I loved everything about his character. This movie made me laugh and cry. The bond between Bateman and Sebastian was beautiful. Every actor in this movie was great, including Juliette Lewis and Jeff Goldblum, who co-star. Trust me, you will enjoy this movie, even if you don't normally watch these types of movies.

The ending was very predictable here, and it is in no way an original story. All the characters are stereotypes: the woman's good male friend the archetypal nerd, the sperm donor the archetypal gorgeous sporty hero, the mother's friends who are supporting her in the getting-a-kid-by-herself-process are of course bohemian, etc..But I liked it a little, anyway. The actors are all good in their parts. It addresses general human issues, and not least the method of having children by sperm donor, that is getting only more and more common among especially high-educated middle-aged women. It is important to remember, that however much the woman wishes for a child, the child's existence might be both lonely and isolated, with no father (because what is happening in this movie will not happen in reality) and no siblings. And he or she might also - as Sebastian in the movie - be called a "scientific experiment" in school. Where most kids of course live in normal families with their real mother, their real father, and at least one full sibling.Despite of the feel-good-tone to this movie, I see it as a warning!

The Switch is a nice wholesome movie about a somewhat quirky young woman named Kassie (Jennifer Aniston) who decides that, as an independent career woman, she wants to become a mother - in other words, as the English would say, she gets clucky - except that she doesn't see any need for her child to have a father in its life. OK so far, nothing particularly new about that.However, Kassie also decides that she doesn't see any need for any sort of formal arrangement and so she not only hires a suitably vetted married man as a sperm donor but throws a lavish party to celebrate the event of getting pregnant. The donor goes to the bathroom and takes himself in hand to produce the necessary "donation" and leaves it on the vanity for Kassie to administer. Enter Kassie's long-time "best friend," Wally (Justin Bateman) who is somewhat the worse for wear due to the generosity of his hostess and needs to use the facilities. Unfortunately, whilst doing so, he accidentally (well, not entirely) manages to spill the "donation" down the basin and, in his panic, just before passing out, summons up enough stamina to replace the donation with one of his own - and then forget all about it!Shortly after the party, Kassie decides that New York is too hectic for her and goes back to her childhood home in Minnesota. goodbye Kassie (although she does send Christmas cards and the occasional email to Wally - after all, they were best friends)Flash forward, >>> After 7 years away, Kassie decides to return to New York with her six-year-old son, Sebastian (brilliantly played by Thomas Robinson - watch out for a lot more from him in the future) and also decides that the original donor who she still thinks it is only right that as Sebastian's father he should, at least, be given the opportunity to meet his son. So she looks up Roland (the donor played by Patrick Wilson) only to find that he is no longer married.Meanwhile though, Sebastian (who takes after his mother in quirkiness) and "Uncle" Wally hit it off immediately and become close friends.The rest is somewhat predictable in that Roland thinks that Sebastian is his blood son and, now that he is free, he can quite naturally see lots of advantages in himself and Kassie and their son becoming a family and works towards that end. However, Wally has some sort of memory recovery where the events of the "Pregnancy part" evening come back to him and, as he realises that he and his son have a unique bond, plans to come clean to Kassie - except that he is terrified and keeps procrastinating until, in the end, he chooses a far from ideal moment to do it.If you want to know what happens then, you'll have to watch the movie. It will leave you feeling good and glad you spent the time.