FAMILY SWITCH - Mark Reviews Movies

Family Switch, Netflix

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Review by Mark Dujsik | November 30, 2023

There's one fairly funny idea in Family Switch, a grating body-swap comedy involving a family that doesn't understand each other but—surprise, surprise—learns some basic lessons of empathy by walking a mile—and farting—in another's shoes. A movie that tries to be this sincere probably shouldn't be so silly, and a premise this overly familiar yet still ridiculous probably shouldn't try to be so cloying. It's the worst of both modes.

The gag here is a predictable and old one, and the fact that the characters provide a winking list of other movies in this specific subgenre at one point isn't enough to make us ignore that Victoria Strouse and Adam Sztykiel's screenplay does nothing new or interesting or amusing with it. It doesn't help that Jennifer Garner, who plays the workaholic mother and her teenage daughter trapped in the mother's body, starred in one of those listed movies about 20 years ago.

That's not because it breaks the believability of the material or some nonsense like that. It's just because Garner has evolved quite a bit as an actor in those two decades, and signing up for tripe such as this feels like a most unfortunate kind of career regression.

She's trying, as are the other cast members in this sappily comedic dud of a movie. Garner plays Jess, who works a lot at an architecture firm, is overly protective of teen daughter CC (Emma Myers), and is obsessed with making good family memories while her little clan still can. Meanwhile, her husband Bill (Ed Helms) is a music teacher at the local high school, where CC and her brother Wyatt (Brady Noon) go to school, but he once had a chance to make it big as a musician, before marrying and starting a family made him quit before the band got famous.

The basic dynamic here is divided cleanly on gender lines. The mother worries that the daughter's goal of becoming a professional soccer player are unrealistic, and the daughter resents her mother for saying that to her. Eventually, Jess learns that dreams are important, no matter how unlikely they might seem (It's funny that she has those fears about this kid, who can maneuver a soccer ball better than most professionals around the world), and CC discovers how much her mom has sacrificed in order to support her all the girl's life.

As for the other side, the father wonders why his son isn't as outgoing as he was as a teen. Meanwhile, the son, who's essentially or explicitly depicted as being on the autism spectrum, doesn't get why he his dad is so uncurious about math and science and his other interests. It's difficult to tell if the teen boy's eventual overnight change is simply naïve, in very bad taste, or just the result of the filmmakers trying to cram as many jokes and emotional beats into this as possible, without considering or caring about any of the specifics.

The premise has the family swapping bodies—again, along gender lines—after looking through a planetarium telescope during a once-in-a-lifetime planetary alignment. CC-as-Jess tries to pitch to some new clients, and ends up with terrible gas after eating ice cream (She really doesn't know her mother is lactose intolerant?), and Jess-as-CC attempts to play soccer at a championship game in front of a national team scout.

Bill-as-Wyatt tries to make his son look cool at school and at an early college interview, Wyatt-as-Bill realizes his crush might like him. Once the movie opens up any kind of romance subplot, we're in uncomfortable territory, especially because, well, mom and dad are now brother and sister, while brother and sister feel pressured by mom's friends to show that there's still a spark in their parents' relationship. Yes, the movie acknowledges that it's all a gross idea, but that doesn't answer why it seems to go out of its way to milk the conceit for laughs.

The whole of it feels unnecessarily frantic, too, whether that be director McG's strangely edit-happy style ruining basic setups or the performances, which are game but never quite convince us that these characters have swapped bodies in any meaningful way. Oh, it's also set at a Christmastime, although that comes across as a last-minute decision when some producer realized when the movie would likely or could be released.

What's the one kind-of funny idea in Family Switch, though? Well, the family also includes a baby and a dog, and they swap bodies, too. No, it's not much of an idea (and the visual effects undermine a lot of the gags), but when confronted with so many dead ends of comedy, even a tiny drop of an amusing gag feels like an oasis.

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