The plot is fairly absurd. Kassie (Jennifer Aniston) is determined to be a mother but, with no marital prospect in sight, decides to gets herself artificially inseminated with the help of a turkey baster. She thinks the semen comes from a professor of feminist studies at Columbia — but there’s a mix-up in the bathroom and the professor’s seed is spilled by Wally (Jason Bateman), her lovelorn friend. After gazing drunkenly at a magazine cover of news anchor Diane Sawyer, Wally manages to replace the lost semen with his own.
What follows is totally predictable. Kassie and Wally will eventually come together, of course. In the intervening years, Kassie has a nice little boy (Thomas Robinson), whom Wally often volunteers to look after, but not before Kassie has determined to marry the professor and send Wally packing.
The film is saved from being an anonymous Hollywood rom-com by the acting. Bateman, looking quite unlike your usual leading man, almost comes across as a real person. He does the business with the limp screenplay, which has him commenting on the proceedings as if telling us what to expect from the start. It’s a personable performance, which Aniston nearly matches.
Robinson is very good, too, as the boy — though the stranger on a New York bus who comments that he looks just like Wally definitely needs new glasses.
But that’s the movies for you, and this one has very little to do with reality. There’s Jeff Goldblum in there, too, as Wally’s sardonically sensible best friend.
The whole thing is directed by Josh Gordon with some aplomb. It’s no great shakes but it sure is better than some of the awful rom-coms we’ve been treated to recently.
The Switch
Cert: 12A
