The Switch: Critic Reviews

The Switch squeezes fresh laughs out of what is, in essence, a rather startlingly post-Freudian, nature-trumps-nurture view of child development.

The first third of The Switch, directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck, is so bizarre that it leads you to wonder if, through some miraculous lack of oversight, the movie will blaze an unpredictable path. No such luck.

Let down by inconsistent characterisation and finally ending in gloopy sentimentality and silliness.

Didn't Jennifer Lopez play essentially the same role this year in The Back-Up Plan? Only in the movies are glamorous, 40ish single women leaping into single parenthood via sperm donation.

A warm, quirkily observant film, strengthened by some appealing performances and a low-key, easygoing vibe.

Allan Loeb wrote the script. Josh Gordon and Will Speck directed. What they've done is concoct something gimmicky and banal.

Saddled with the responsibility of carrying the film, Bateman acquits himself admirably.

It's Judd Apatow lite, Farrelly brothers special blend. Just call it When Harry Met Sally and Her Ovum.

The comedy itself suffers from awkward scheduling. Though this isn't its only wrinkle.

Thanks to Bateman's truly winning performance as a bit of a loser, "The Switch" manages to earn our laughter and our respect in equal measure.

I wish it were great, but "pretty good" puts it ahead of plenty of recent romantic comedies. Puh-LEN-ty.

This New York-based comedy directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck distinguishes itself with three-dimensional characters and an engaging storyline.

The Jason Bateman film his fans have been waiting for.

Aniston and Bateman find a funny chemistry together, and the film's bemusing setup unfolds with wit and charm. As 6-year-old Sebastian, Thomas Robinson steals every scene he's in.

It's not a bad film, really, just sort of average. But Bateman is so good in it -- natural, funny, yet full of real emotion -- that you immediately want to see him again in a better film.

An unfunny, manipulative romance about two unlikable people and their prop of a son, the pic mangles the premise of its source material.

Tries to be more than a sitcom but keeps falling back on cheap laughs.

The best Jennifer Aniston movie in ages is actually a star vehicle for Jason Bateman. And Aniston's work opposite the screen's premiere mild-mannered funnyman shows her at her most engaged and pitch perfect.

At its heart, it's really not that different from a regular romantic comedy. Well, except that it's funny.

Another in a recent line of romcoms eager to get us laughing all the way to the sperm bank, and then to the infant dividends beyond.

Taken on its own terms, it's a light, sweet, curiously enjoyable misfit romance, whose real star is not Aniston but her magnificently awkward Lothario, Jason Bateman.

The sadness comes from the audience's sense that inside this slick, conventional romantic comedy there's a tender, scruffy little movie struggling to get out.

All that's good about The Switch is undermined by the need to conform to romantic comedy standards and by the predictable performance of a miscast Jennifer Aniston.

Once you get past a shaky premise, the comedy does blossom in this Jennifer Aniston-Jason Bateman rom-com.

This one is played in broad, sitcommy fashion, utterly divorced from the way people behave in real life.