Family Switch

This review may contain spoilers!

 

Family Switch is a body swap family-comedy that follows the Walkers, a dysfunctional family of high-achievers who constantly struggle to get along and meet one another's expectations. When a bit of cosmic chaos causes the family to all find themselves body swapped (mother and daughter, father and son, baby and family dog) they must learn to work together to solve their predicament and continue their lives.

 

This is a film with a lot of issues throughout typical of a low-budget Netflix comedy but what it manages to get right is the charming family dynamic of the Walkers. What I like about the character relationships here is that the characters all genuinely like and care for one another, they're just struggling to convey that affection which is a very sweet dynamic for a family feature.

 

Jennifer Garner, who played Jess, really suits the strict and business savvy Mum figure; yet I really enjoyed Garner hamming up the comedic elements of playing a teen ruining her Mum's adult life and image. Ed Helms, who played Bill, might not have found his best lead ever in this film but he is thoroughly charming to watch; Helms is very earnest and and either of the roles he plays are ones you come to root for purely due to that charisma.

However, the best performance came from Emma Myers, who played CC. There is something very special about seeing a young up and coming performer standing out so strongly in a film that features a veteran actress and comedic actor. Myers plays the laidback and flippant persona of CC very well; a popular young woman who really has her sights set on going far living her dream. She particularly nails her dynamic with Garner, in that she feels frustrated and stifled by her Mum and the way that relationship is depicted is well done. Yet once the big 'switch' actually happens and Myers begins portraying Jess in young CC's body, you really get to see the range this young performer can achieve. She presents the overly-serious, task-focused mother figure in a way that is entirely believable. In fact, out of all the cast Myers handles the transition from one character to the other the best. Seeing just the little details of how she portrays new discovered pride in her kids or dotes on the baby in the background is a great example of this. Emma Myers might not be attached to a great project here but she stands out as a performer well worth watching in the years ahead.

Family Switch is a film that is juggling a lot in terms of genre, it might feel overly simplistic at times but in terms of genre there is a lot going on. The film has a Christmas movie setting but really dances around this and struggles to pull that aspect in; you certainly won't be seeing this in anyone's memorable holiday movie lists. The comedy used throughout relies on the family characters being more archetypes than well-rounded characters; a strict Mum, goofball Dad, nerdy son and rebellious daughter are who the Walkers are and they don't really get to grow beyond those confines. So the comedy becomes quite predictable, of the rebellious kid now sounds very strict and proper isn't going to shock or even really impress audiences. When the humour isn't constantly ribbing the audience over stereotypical characters there is a lot of basic clumsy physical humour. The amount of pratfalls, dancing or characters doing embarrassing things without realising is textbook lazy American comedy. The body swap component fails to really impart much of a theme or even a learning moment for our lead characters. In fact there are some downright awful things that transpire from the body swap element. The big thing for me was that the film includes two very strange incest scenes, in which jokes revolve around either the parents flirting with one another in their kids' bodies or the kids being forced to kiss in their parents' bodies by their parents' friends. It's a really uncomfortable moment of comedy that is played off quite lightly in a totally bizarre way. I also have to give a special shout out to the subplot around the baby and dog swapping bodies, a storyline that went nowhere and never once served the plot.

The film itself is unsurprisingly quite visually bland, the straight to streaming films have rarely shown much attention to cinematography but comedies especially suffer in this space. The film has very plain shots and a sense of style that is just trying to put everything in front of the camera. The visual effects are some of the most horrific I've seen so far this year, with the effects applied to the baby and dog characters serving as what I can only describe as nightmare fuel. The score is pretty docile and forgettable, while the soundtrack is so confused over what it wants to brand itself as. Sometimes the music wants to be Christmas, other times it wants to be a pumped up comedy but it never really learns to pick a lane. 

Brady Noon, who played Wyatt, gives a really over the top portrayal of the nerdy son figure; Noon is the most dedicated to playing to stereotypes out of the main cast and really falls flat for it. Rita Moreno, who played Angelica, is a performance I really don't know was all that necessary for this feature; Moreno isn't very good and the old wise spiritual figure feels a bit worn out. Matthias Schweighöfer, who played Rolf, is a very talented performer absolutely wasted on an abysmal and unnecessary subplot; Schweighöfer is literally nothing more than the visual cutback to the baby/dog subplot that pads the film out in a way no one really wants. Vanessa Carrasco, who played Ariana, is squarely pinned into the 'girl next door' love interest type; Carrasco is there to serve Noon's character arc and the pair don't have a lot of chemistry in the first place. Cyrus Arnold, who played Hunter Drew, isn't especially convincing as the high school bully; Arnold's tough posturing feels like nothing the actor can really back up. Ilia Isorelýs Paulino, who played Kara, is framed as a sort of right hand woman to Garner's character in the film but the pair don't connect strongly; more than that the delivery from Paulino doesn't come with much impact. Jordan Leftwich, who played Ava, is another supporting character with minimal chemistry with her paired main cast member; Leftwich and Myers are framed as besties but this isn't especially evident and Leftwich often falls into the backdrop. Xosha Rocquemore, who played Carrie, is a best friend to Garner's character that shows up quite late in the feature to little effect; Rocquemore really doesn't play her character very consistently across scenes either. Paul Scheer, who played Steven, was a very egenric minor antagonist in the film; the blatant conniving office rival thing felt boring as soon as Scheer was introduced.

All the worst parts of a family comedy, a Christmas film and a body swap film. I would give Family Switch a 2/10.