THE SWITCH (USA 2010) ***
Directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck

Directors Josh Gordon and Will Speck who shared an Oscar nomination for their short film CULTURE prove their worth with the Jennifer Aniston romantic comedy THE SWITH.  A romantic comedy with Aniston might sound just the kind of film cynics will avoid, but their film is quite charming and surprising despite a totally predictable storyline.

The title comes about from a switch of sperm.  Wally (Jason Bateman) and Kassie (Jennifer Aniston) are best friends.  When Kassie decides to get sperm from donor Roland (Patrick Wilson), whom Wally jealously nickname the Viking, an accident causes Wally to switch Roland’s sperm for his, so that Kassie’s son, Sebastian (Thomas Robinson) is actually his and not Roland’s as everyone else thinks.  Kassie keeps in contact with Roland who tries his best to be a father, but Sebastian sticks to Wally who begins to feel for the boy as a father.  At one point in the film, the audience would definitely realise how all this will end.  Wally will eventually marry best friend Kassie but not after him telling her the truth when she will get mad with him.  Still how the film gets to the end is surprisingly entertaining.

It helps that the film concentrates on the more interesting character - Wally rather than Kassie.  Wally is slightly neurotic, indecisive taking orders often from his best friend (Jeff Goldblum) and in a hilarious sequence at the film’s start described accurately as a beady-eyed man boy by a street person.  Sebastian, the boy is killer cute and enough to break ones heart.  Fortunately, this film stays away from unnecessary sentiment.  And Anistan is Anistan.  Hunk Patrick Wilson plays a hunk over-confident in himself.

It is hard to praise a toaster for delivering toast as it is expected to.  Still, if the toast is nicely brown and tasty, one cannot complain.  THE SWITCH delivers a standard formula to audiences that would satisfactorily entertain.