The Switch (I) (2010)

Seven years after the fact, a man comes to the realization that he was the sperm donor for his best friend's boy.

Directors:

Josh Gordon, Will Speck

Writers:

Allan Loeb (screenplay), Jeffrey Eugenides (short story "Baster")

Stars:

Jason Bateman, Jennifer Aniston, Jeff Goldblum

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jason Bateman	...	Wally Mars
Victor Pagan	...	Knit Hat Guy
Jennifer Aniston	...	Kassie Larson
Jeff Goldblum	...	Leonard
Juliette Lewis	...	Debbie
Todd Louiso	...	Artie
Scott Elrod	...	Declan
Patrick Wilson	...	Roland
Rebecca Naomi Jones	...	Party Guest
Kelli Barrett	...	Roland's Wife Jessica
Jeremy J. Mohler	...	Party Guest #2
Will Swenson	...	Actor on Stage
Edward James Hyland	...	Man in Theater
Caroline Dhavernas	...	Pauline
Brian Podnos	...	Waiter

Storyline

Kassie (Jennifer Aniston) and Wally (Jason Bateman) are best friends. Being unlucky in love, Kassie has decided to have a child using artificial insemination. Wally doesn't like this idea, but he isn't capable of admitting to himself, let alone to Kassie, that he's in love with her. At Kassie's artificial insemination party, Wally gets very drunk and spies the sperm donor's sample in the bathroom. Wally was way too drunk to know what he did that night, and Kassie has moved away because she doesn't feel that New York City is a place to raise a child. Now 7 years later, Kassie has moved back with her son Sebastian. While she is looking to get Roland (the sperm donor) more involved in their lives, Wally can't help but notice the many striking similarities that he and Sebastian share.

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Plot Keywords:

sperm | sperm donor | best friend | artificial insemination | party | 

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Taglines:

The most unexpected comedy ever conceived.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic content, sexual material including dialogue, some nudity, drug use and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 August 2010 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Baster

Filming Locations:

2nd Ave & E 56th St, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$19,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£666,018 (UK) (3 September 2010)

Gross:

$27,758,465 (USA) (12 November 2010)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mandate Pictures, Bona Fide Productions, Echo Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

After arguing with Kassie, Wally is seen walking in the rain. A truck passes behind him bearing an ad featuring a turkey baster. This is a reference to 'The Baster', the short story on which the film was based.

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Goofs

When Wally and Sebastian are walking through the park the woman jogging and the man on the bike with the beige jacket can both be seen crossing the camera twice in under 30 seconds. Without doubling back this is not possible.

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Quotes

Knit Hat Guy: [about Wally] B-b-b-be-bb-bb-b-b-beady eyed - bbbeady eyed little man boy!

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Connections

References Good Morning America (1975)

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Soundtracks

"Open Your Heart"
Written by Rebecca Ann Stark, Ronald Rege Jr., Jeffrey M. Rosenberg and Steven John Gregoropouos
Performed by Lavender Diamond
Courtesy of Matador Records

User Reviews

Enjoyable and definitely not as bad as it may appear...

So I saw The Switch over this weekend and I must say I expected this to be a complete failure and it surprised me to not be that. Matter of fact, the movie stands out pretty well through Aniston's filmography. The story is not complicated, runs smooth and gets your attention. The story revolves around Wally Mars (Jason Bateman) a middle-age single guy who has a hard-time finding his match and Kassie Larson (Jennifer Aniston), his best-friend. At Kassie's semen-party, Wally gets drunk and switches the donator's sperm with his own without realizing and forgetting completely about what happened to next day. After seven years of being separated by distance Kassie movies back to her town and of course, she starts to talk again to her "best-friend". Problems appear only when Wally sees that Kassie's kid is acting pretty much similar like him so he remembers what he did and decides to tell Kassie the truth. Of course, this story has it's clichés and I'm the most bored person on the earth by clichés but this movie is a little bit different. It's not that funny, it has it's funny moments which were handled well but the movie it-self is more of a romance than a comedy so I enjoyed it more than others who expected a million laughs from it.

As far as the acting, this is definitely Aniston's best movie this year and I liked her attitude in this even though she portrays almost the same character but it's such an improvement from The Bounty Hunter. Jason Bateman was very good, hilarious at points as usual and actually approached a more serious tone for this role. The rest was good and I really was not bothered by anything at all. The characters were lovely and I was surprised for them to not look over-acted and exaggerated.

The cinematography, editing were pretty much normal, nothing to be mentioned and the score was as usual, typical for a romantic movie. With all these I want to say that this movie is not BAD and I don't understand people who love to bash this movie just for it's clichés and stuff like that. This movie is a simple good time for a boring afternoon. It's far from being great but it's such a better choice than most of the wack stuff that studios put out.