Review of The Switch

The Switch (I) (2010)
7/10
A fun, believable romance with a twist.
30 August 2014
Warning: Spoilers
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.
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