There comes a point in a young man’s life in his teen years, where things begin to…change. By this of course, I am referring to how they take in movies. In my elementary years, a movie as iconic as Star Wars: A New Hope would have had little merit for me considering I had very little life experience to throw my mind into the conflict. So after hearing that, one might think that I would dare to compare “The Switch” to “Star Wars” and thusly, make a complete assjohn of myself. Nay, I only wish to describe a general trend and, in turn, illustrate to you, the reader, what seeing this movie may mentally satiate. As people age, however, I have found that they tend to truly immerse themselves less and less in what they watch. This is the opposite of a kindergartener who in ritual preparation for their favorite program may begin wildly slapping their buttocks and has conversations with the characters. But with more experienced moviegoers, it seems that they begin to play the movie parallel to their inner thoughts and discuss the presentation over the events. In the same manner that audiences watching a Greek tragedy know what will happen, moviegoers of today can usually predict major plot archetypes. Because of that trend, “The Switch” is an underrated and poignant film.
So what is “The Switch”? Why the hell did I choose to see something with Jennifer Aniston over “The Other Guys”, a movie ripe with stereotypical young male adult humor? To put it plainly, even without seeing the latter, I can be certain “The Switch” was more worth my money.
The premise of the movie is summarized in a humorous quote used by Wally Mars (Jason Bateman): “I high-jacked her pregnancy”. However, like hair on a Portuguese, the plot grows in many different directions and often in places you wouldn’t expect.
Fatherhood plays an integral role and in that way, the movie is by no means a “chick flick”. Furthermore, the humor is not centered in giggly, embarrassing Hugh Grant moments, eliminating it from being considered a romantic comedy. What I really enjoyed were the real elements that the movie had. To name a few: there is no obvious bad guy who you can point your finger at, the main character has his flaws even to the audience, and the end of the climactic argument is not “You had me at hello” nor is it an equally predictable indie twist of today where the guy doesn’t get together with the girl. This kept my interest and if I had to explain every event of the movie, I would be very hard pressed because it is not just a matter of saying “She realizes _____” or “He changes his ways and then _____”.
Now I could just bash the bad points of the movie as a part two in my thoughts, but instead I’ll just end with this: “The Switch” is a solid option as a movie if you simply enjoy watching good movies like a reader enjoys reading good books (as opposed to the teen who read a few pages into that book they trendily heard about and then bought from Urban Outfitters).
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