Review of The Switch (2010) by Shiira — 25 Aug 2010

Sebastian is so twee, were he a girl, his name could only be Belle. But Kassie had a son, a boy too sensitive for his own good; the sort of kid who worries about the fate of aquarium-bound creatures, which is to say, he probably took the plight of the imprisoned **** "sea-kittens" in "Finding Nemo" to heart.

Sebastian was a test-tube baby. In his most primordial form, he too swam around in an enclosed environment. The aquarium is at a Chinese restaurant, where Wally is reunited with Kassie, his best friend who's back in New York after a seven-year separation.

Actually, Kassie already has a best friend(Debbie, played by Juliette Lewis), as does Wally(Leonard, played by Jeff Goldblum), but Wally is like a boy who doesn't know he's supposed to kiss the girl. Now Kassie is home again, but with baggage, so he thinks; baggage in the form of a test tube baby who grew up to be boy with the sort of singular personality that can test one's patience.

After Kassie gives Wally the lowdown on her twee son, the oblivious father suspects that his best friend is exaggerating, since the lad he sees at the fish tank appears perfectly normal; an all-American boy, by Wally's estimation, who could have originated from Roland's sperm.

But then the happy child steps aside, and that's when we first lay eyes on Sebastian, the animal-rights activist and hypochondriac. To Wally's chagrin, Sebastian would rather eat rice with soy sauce than the duck that the man-child shelled out big bucks for, because thanks to the Internet, the kid knows all about foie gras.

It's as if Sebastian has an oversized heart, due to the force-feeding of on-line information which his preternatural compassion for animals stoke. In another film, for instance, Mike White's "Year of the Dog", a funny, but corrosive film that doesn't love its characters, Sebastian's veganism and overall neurotic essence would be roundly ridiculed.

"The Switch" doesn't treat Sebastian like a loser. The film handles him with kid gloves, which at times can be detrimental to the inherent drama of Wally's rivalry with Roland for Cassie's affections.

Her sperm donor, a nice guy, is too nice, exactly what you'd expect from an assistant professor in feminist studies at Columbia University. Because the man has no notable flaws, some moviegoers may deem Wally's plan to tell Cassie the truth about the sperm as being selfish and narcissistic.

At a rock-climbing park, site of Sebastian's birthday party, it's a park employee and not Roland who loses his patience with the boy's unwillingness to have fun. Due to Roland's discipline in academia, emasculating Sebastian with a boorish outburst would belie the sensitivity that Kassie presumes a feminist studies professor comes equipped with.

Roland's stability is better than Wally's imbalances. The film never proves, without the shadow of a doubt, that Wally is the better husband for Kassie, the better father for Sebastian. Biding his own time, without any regard toward what's best for mother and child, Wally finally decides it's time to grow up, to step up, and be a man.

Thirteen years? That's too late in some women's books. But since "The Switch" is not another dispiriting romantic comedy, it's good by default(Sebastian, played by Thomas Robinson, earns your sympathy), but imagine how much better the film would be if Kassie was the one to intuit the truth about her son, by recognizing the "boy" in the boy.