'The Switch' Movie Reviews

Moviegoers this weekend can see what got Bill O'Reilly all riled up last week.

It's 'The Switch,' a Jennifer Aniston-Jason Bateman starrer that revolves around a single New York woman, Kassie (Aniston), who decides to impregnate herself with donated sperm. Unknown to her, however, her friend Wally (Bateman), in a drunken stupor, switches the donated sperm with his own. Seven years later, with son in tow, Kassie returns to NY from Minnesota, and Wally begins to insert himself into their lives. The catch is, of course, that neither Kassie nor Wally -- who was too drunk to remember his switch -- know that 6-year-old Sebastian is really Wally's son.

O'Reilly took umbrage with the notion of a single woman starting a family without a father. He called it "destructive to our society," and Aniston fired back.

As for the movie, it's a light romantic comedy with reviews that are middling, shading over to negative, with some critics finding the performances rising above the by-the-numbers plot -- most notably Bateman's performance. Also garnering praise are young Thomas Robinson as the boy and Jeff Goldblum as Wally's best friend.

The Switch' is directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck of 'Blades of Glory' fame.

Read what the critics say: Moviegoers this weekend can see what got Bill O'Reilly all riled up last week.

It's 'The Switch,' a Jennifer Aniston-Jason Bateman starrer that revolves around a single New York woman, Kassie (Aniston), who decides to impregnate herself with donated sperm. Unknown to her, however, her friend Wally (Bateman), in a drunken stupor, switches the donated sperm with his own. Seven years later, with son in tow, Kassie returns to NY from Minnesota, and Wally begins to insert himself into their lives. The catch is, of course, that neither Kassie nor Wally -- who was too drunk to remember his switch -- know that 6-year-old Sebastian is really Wally's son.

O'Reilly took umbrage with the notion of a single woman starting a family without a father. He called it "destructive to our society," and Aniston fired back.

As for the movie, it's a light romantic comedy with reviews that are middling, shading over to negative, with some critics finding the performances rising above the by-the-numbers plot -- most notably Bateman's performance. Also garnering praise are young Thomas Robinson as the boy and Jeff Goldblum as Wally's best friend.

The Switch' is directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck of 'Blades of Glory' fame.

Here's what the critics say:

Entertainment Weekly: "But 'The Switch' is a pleasant surprise. It's a by-the-numbers movie, but the dots that get connected feel fresh. Aniston, playing a forward-thinking lonely girl, is at her most sexy and charming -- and no, I'm not saying that to be nice, I'm saying it because she's sexy and charming, dammit. Why all the Internet brickbats toward this woman?"

Orlando Sentinel: '"The Switch' is straight formula comedy, but the formula is pretty well-executed this time out. Her obligatory 'wacky gal pal?' -- Juliette Lewis, sharp and biting. His pal confessor? -- Jeff Goldblum, doing that beautiful, bug-eyed word jazz that nobody does as well."

The Associated Press: "Aniston and Bateman both have long, strong TV comedy backgrounds; Aniston, when given smart writing to work with in films like 'The Good Girl' and 'Friends With Money,' has proven herself an actress of unexpected depth. Here, they just get nothing to work with. Their characters are barely-drawn types, and in Wally's case, they're barely likable. Aniston and Bateman have so little chemistry, you actually wonder how their characters ended up friends with each other, much less best friends."



ReelViews: "Aniston spends the movie being the same Jennifer Aniston who has inhabited so many mediocre perky romantic comedies in recent years rather than the Jennifer Aniston who showed her acting chops in 'The Good Girl.' There's no evidence that Aniston shares chemistry with any of her co-stars. There's no spark between her and Jason Bateman; we feel his longing for her, but it's not reciprocated. In fact, she doesn't even seem very friendly with him. There's no sense of sexual attraction between her and Patrick Wilson. And there's no discernible motherly impulse where Thomas Robinson is concerned."

Rolling Stone: "The film offers few -- make that no -- surprises. What almost saves it is the acting. Aniston has charm. And the indispensable Bateman is a gift to comedies on life support. His scenes with the boy belong to a funnier, more feeling movie."

Time Out New York: "Don't think too hard about the fact that this much-telegraphed tale comes from 'Middlesex' author Jeffrey Eugenides, nor that it's one of those NYC movies in which single moms float around spotless, spacious apartments. Rather, marvel at the desperate spectacle of three comic leads -- Aniston, Bateman and 'Watchmen's' Patrick Wilson as the original donor -- being outperformed by the wide-eyed Robinson, a quiet collector of silences."

Chicago Tribune: "Aniston sometimes feels sidelined in her own movie (she is, after all, a woman playing a woman; what else is new?). I suppose there's a sameness to her work on screen, yet I don't know of a steadily working actress in Hollywood who gets a more consistently bad rap -- based solely on the quality of most of her scripts, such as the misery-inducing 'Bounty Hunter' -- than this one. What she needs is luck, and a better agent."

The Hollywood Reporter: "The film could have used sharper scenes between Aniston and Bateman. The model here is too Woody Allen-ish, with Wally's neuroses and kvetching dominating their scenes without any real romantic spark. A romantic comedy needs at least some romance between its leads."