"The Switch" warms the heart

"I don't need a man to have a baby" is the premise of Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman's new film, "The Switch."  Kassie Larson  (Aniston, "The Bounty Hunter," "Friends") is a 40-something New Yorker whose biological clock is on its last tick, so she decides to get artificially inseminated.  

Kassie's neurotic best friend Wally Mars, (Bateman, "Up In the Air," "Juno") is in love with Kassie, however his "friend zone" status leaves him unable to either romance Kassie or stop her insemination.  Kassie, not wanting a no-name donor, finds the studly Roland (Patrick Wilson, "The A-Team," "Watchmen"), a married teacher in need of cash, to become her donor.  

At a very hip insemination party, Wally meets Roland and gets completely trashed.  In his drunken, jealous haze, he accidently dumps Roland's "donation" down the sink and replaces it with his own.  

Flash forward seven years, after Kassie moves back from Minnesota with a 6-year-old son, Sebastian (Thomas Robinson).  Wally, noticing Sebastian's quirks are like his own, begins to remember what happened seven years ago with the help of his boss/mentor/friend Leonard (Jeff Goldblum, "Law and Order: Criminal Intent").  Wally becomes close to Sebastian and watches as Kassie becomes close to the newly single "donor" Roland.

This movie, although billed as a typical romantic comedy, was surprisingly not so.  Based on the 1996 short story "Baster" by Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Jeffrey Eugenides, this film explores the story of Wally's progression as a person and a father, rather than the romance between Kassie and Wally.  

Bateman's Wally was an unexpectedly lovable character His neurotic quirks and self-depreciation were so well acted that they became endearing.  Although the idea that he would remember nothing the morning after "the switch" and remember all of it seven years later is a little far-fetched, if that can be glanced over, the rest is quite enjoyable.

Wally's Mini-Me, Sebastian, upstages everyone within the first two minutes of screen time. He is as neurotic and quirky as Bateman, with all the adorableness of a child.  He is believable as both the child of Wally and the child of Kassie.  

Aniston portrays the single woman, single mother and over-her-head girlfriend with ease. However, she lacks the edge to make her character as loveable as either Wally or Sebastian.  As Kassie grows from a selfish single woman to a devoted single mother, her relationship with Wally never seems to progress until the very end of the movie.

This film "switches" up the usual romantic comedy formula, and although slow at parts, is worth a watch.  The inspiration from Eugenides's short story gives this movie a realistic and heartening edge that likens it more to a film like "Juno" than a monstrosity like Jennifer Lopez's "The Back-Up Plan."