The Switch (2010)

Cute, albeit predictable. If you've seen the trailer, you know that Kassie (Jennifer Aniston) decides to get pregnant via donated sperm, and her best friend Wally (Jason Bateman) replaces the donation with one of his own. Bateman gives a satisfyingly wry performance and, of course, Aniston has great hair. It was pretty low on our list but at a convenient time Friday and was better than we expected. Allan Loeb (who co-adapted the script for 21 (2008)) adapted this screenplay from the short story The Baster by Jeffrey Eugenides (whose novel was the basis of Sofia Coppola's good but unfunny The Virgin Suicides (1999)) and Loeb co-wrote the screenplay for the upcoming sequel to 1987's Wall Street. Co-directors Josh Gordon and Will Speck, in their second feature (their first was Blades of Glory (2007)), have a bit more trouble with the pace here than their previous farce, perhaps because this isn't a farce, but attempts to tug at the heartstrings.

There's some funny stuff, though. A homeless guy with Tourette's brings a lot of laughs in the very beginning, and Jeff Goldblum (some of his best are The Fly (1986), Jurassic Park (1993 and 1997), and Igby Goes Down (2002)), brings some more as Bateman's friend Leonard (plus he improvises a bluesy intro to Happy Birthday on the piano near the end--I knew it was he before the camera panned up to his face). Bateman ((my faves are Juno (2007), Hancock (2008), Extract, Up in the Air, and, of course TV's Arrested Development, which won him a Golden Globe)) is mostly great as a pessimistic buzzkill (is that redundant?) and so is the kid, Thomas Robinson. Aniston (I didn't watch Friends but I liked and liked her in Office Space (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), and especially Friends with Money (2006) and He's Just Not That Into You) does the best she can with the script, and Juliette Lewis (Oscar-nominated for Cape Fear (1991), she was also great in Kalifornia and What's Eating Gilbert Grape (both 1993), Natural Born Killers (1994), and more) has her moments as Kassie's friend. Oh yeah, and Patrick Wilson plays the guy whose most important trait is his good looks (as in the excellent Little Children (2006)).

Full soundtrack info is on imdb, including the mandatory Hill sisters credit for Happy Birthday, and another of the songs is Sea Green, See Blue by Jaymay, which is also in happythankyoumoreplease as well as Serendipity (2001). The incidence of Rule #3 is late in the movie, but is there, along with nice set dressing in the lush interiors and gorgeous establishing shots of New York City, where every shot was filmed.