MOVIE REVIEWS: THE SWITCH
August 20, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
Reviews for The Switch are pretty much equally divided between the “bad” and the “not bad,” with a few glowing and a few derisive ones thrown in — also in equal measure. Richard Roeper in the Chicago Sun-Times warns viewers about what he calls “The Head Lice Montage.” Until that appears, he says, they are required to navigate “mediocre waters” but when the Montage comes, “it might be time to fold up the pack of Twizzlers, gather your belongings and head for the exits. Summer’s almost over. Life’s too short.” On the other hand, across town at the Chicago Tribune, Michael Phillips gives the film 2 1/2 stars, writing that “the people who put it together are at least working in a realm of reasonable intelligence and wit and respect for the audience. I wish it were great, but ‘pretty good’ puts it ahead of plenty of recent romantic comedies. Puh-LEN-ty.” While Jennifer Aniston is nominally the star of the movie, several critics suggest that the real stars are Jason Bateman (he “hijacks” the movie, says Joe Neumaier in the New York Daily News) and child actor Thomas Robinson (“an inspired performance,” writes Lou Lumenick in the New York Post. As for Jennifer Aniston, the critics suggest she serves amiably as a foil for Bateman. But she, too gets largely cordial notices. “The best Jennifer Aniston movie in ages is actually a star vehicle for Jason Bateman,” writes Roger Moore in the Orlando Sentinel, “and Aniston’s work opposite the screen’s premiere mild-mannered funnyman shows her at her most engaged and pitch perfect.” The real problem for Aniston, the critics suggest, is that the plot of the movie has more to do with Bateman and Robinson’s characters than with hers. Indeed, Ann Hornaday focuses on their relationship in her review in the Washington Post: “Thanks to Robinson’s soulful performance and his obvious chemistry with Bateman, what could have been a maudlin or saccharine enterprise rings eccentrically true,” she writes. But as Wesley Morris asks in the Boston Globe: “If a Jennifer Aniston movie doesn’t actually need Jennifer Aniston, do we?”
