The Switch (Rhoades)

“The Switch” Irks Bill O’Reilly
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades

With the growing popularity of “The Kids Are All Right,” you’d think the theme of artificial insemination would be a hot movie topic. But it’s been lukewarm at the box office for “The Switch,” Jennifer Aniston’s latest comedy
.
Still, I liked it.

Aniston keeps trying to make it as a romantic comedy star after years of typecasting on TV’s “Friends.” But such movies as “The Bounty Hunter,” “Love Happens,” and the prophetic “He’s Just Not That Into You” have delivered close-but-no-cigar results. “Marley & Me” was a big winner, but the dog gets much of the credit.

So, Hollywood moguls decided, what if she tries something trendier, like a movie about becoming a single mom. After being dumped by Brad Pitt, John Meyer, Vince Vaughan, and others, our poor Jen admits that she’s been contemplating the parenthood solution sometimes referred to as “the turkey baster approach.”
Sure, this pronouncement drew lots of headlines when television pundit Bill O’Reilly took her on, citing two-parent platitudes in a divorce-ridden society, arguing that her attitude glamorized single motherhood. And Jennifer Aniston fired back, pluckily holding her ground, saying she’d “choose artificial insemination over sex with Bill O’Reilly.”

However, “The Switch” – now playing at the Tropic Cinema – takes test-tube conception one step further.
Aniston portrays a fortysomething single woman who gets preggers the new-fashion way. But it turns out there was a switcheroo at the lab and unbeknownst to her the sperm donor is her best friend. Well, you can see how this plot will unfold in a he-was-there-all-along way.

Jason Bateman plays her buddy with the bonus spermatozoa. Truth is, this is really more his movie than Aniston’s. As the central character who discovers his folly, Bateman gives one of his patented understated performances. This guy is really good.

You’ve seen Bateman in everything from “Up in the Air” to “Hancock” to “Juno,” not a bad performance among them. He’s been around – there-all-along – since his teenage roles in TV’s “Little House on the Prairie” and “Silver Spoons.” More recently you chuckled along with him on the wacky “Arrested Development” television series. Now he’s coming into his own as an almost-movie-star.

The acting between Bateman and Jennifer Aniston displays an easygoing comfort, for the two are old friends in real life. Him, the happily married bud who’s always on Aniston’s invite list, an anchor of calmness and sanity in her otherwise crazy life. You almost wish he was available for Jen, but for her it would be like dating your brother.

And for Jennifer Aniston, romance goes better for her in the movies.

srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]