The Christmas season is looming upon us, and what better way to celebrate it than with a tired body-swapping film that offers nothing new to the subgenre. That rather disparaging sentence may already give you a sign of my overall thoughts on this Netflix “original.” One could easily just wave this off as a totally harmless Christmas flick about a family learning to appreciate each other, but with how common these types of films have been over the decades-famous examples like Freaky Friday and 13 Going on 30-it begs the question of how long this novelty can stay novel.
Family Switch, with a title as generic as the concept, offers very little in the way of this idea outside of modern interests and mannerisms. Slap some well-known stars and a Christmas setting on it and you have one of the most forgettable and serviceable films within the body-swapping genre. Directed by a man who proudly calls himself McG, this is Family Switch.
This holly-jolly tale has little in the way of relevance to the holiday, and even less creativity in its concept. Centred on a well-to-do family, we see parents Jess (Jennifer Garner) and Bill (Ed Helms) try to navigate their lives, with Jess aiming for the big promotion at her work and Bill hoping to sign a record deal after years of teaching music. Their teenage Children, CC (Emma Myers) and Wyatt (Brady Noon), are both high achievers in their own rights. CC is a talented football (soccer) player and is hoping to be taken to the premier league, and Wyatt is an intelligent kid who is on the road to gaining a college placement early, but is subject to the bullying and general out-casting from other kids.
This horribly perfect family suddenly has their lives disrupted when attending an exhibition at an observatory. Also bringing their infant son, and dog for some reason, Jess and Bill find themselves at odds with the two teenagers. Approached by a mystic who claims to see the future and the aligning of all the planets, the six figures are thrown into some magical body-switching shenanigans, destroying a telescope in the process. The father and son switch places. The mother and daughter switch places. Even the baby and the dog get caught up in the mix.
The family realises that they only have one more day before the planets disperse, and they think it has something to do with the telescope. Each family member has to endure a day in the opposite family member’s body, which leads some “hilarious” situations. Will the family learn to appreciate the hardships of each other by the end of this predictable regurgitation of ideas? The real question is do you care?
Trying to even remotely sell this as a film worth anyone’s time is a true struggle. Early in the film, when the family first switches places, the film not-so-subtly acknowledges other films that have done this concept. By even mentioning the names of better films, you’re actively inviting audiences to compare. Just because you put up a front of self-aware humour does not mean you’re immune to any real criticism.
The entire film rehashes many of the same family-tension you can expect from the likes of the three Freaky Friday films. We get parents and children alike having to learn to appreciate what they do; the hardships they overcome in their daily lives. But where Freaky Friday excels is in how grounded the characters feel. The family seen here is far too perfect. Even Ed Helms’ Bill, a washed up musician, still feels like a well-off character with everything in his life going well. Everyone in the family is either incredibly smart or incredibly talented, with a nice big house to further compliment them, so it’s hard to relate to any of the conflict.
The film’s biggest offense, however, is how little it tries to evolve the whole body-swapping premise. It’s okay not to do too much, but repeating the same exact dynamics-the self-righteous teen girl with the overbearing mother, the social outcast son with the awkward dad-just makes this feel so hollow. There are moments where this can feel charming, like when Jess (in the body of CC) is trying to play football but failing miserably, or when Bill (in the body of Wyatt) is trying so hard to be cool and characters seems to enjoy this behaviour. But it’s mostly very barren and derivative.
What irritates me more than anything with this film is how idealistic everything turns out. There isn’t much to spoil about the film, but even in the face of tribulation, these characters don’t seem to be struggling all too much. Some humorous moments occur that managed to get a nice, comfortable laugh, but it’s so subdued by how overly rewarding it is to its own characters. There’s all these little subplots, like Wyatt struggling to fit in, that are always quickly resolved with things like Wyatt finding out that the girl he has a crush on likes all the same things that he does. We get the whole sequence of CC messing up her mother’s pitch, but it’s hardly going to stay that decayed. If the film wasn’t already self-indulgent, the final moments of the film are written irritatingly perfectly; by which I mean the film throws rewards around like nothing.
The humour of the film is very confused. This isn’t a typo, the film suffers with an identity crisis. While it mostly keeps itself grounded, relying on the oddball comedy to keep it afloat, there are times when the film divulges into wackiness. There’s a moment where Bill (in Wyatt’s body) is playing up his cool-guy personality and every students suddenly goes along with it. There’s a lot of jokes about the baby and dog having switched places, which leads to some nightmarish CGI. Then there’s the overly-choreographed dance scene involving not just the family, but everyone around them as well. It comes out of nowhere and feels more like a studio trying to tick off a checklist.
The actors do blend well into their roles. You can tell that they studied each other, picking up on speech mannerisms and little facial quirks. I keep coming back Brady Noon’s performance, as he feels like a spot-on conduit for Ed Helms’ distinctive portrayal. Myers and Garner work exceptionally well off each other, with a subtlety that you wouldn’t expect from a film like this. But more could’ve been done to increase the subtlety. I think the film could’ve benefitted from a slight shakeup, by switching gender roles instead. There could’ve been some clever jokes about gender norms and how often we try to encourage more inclusivity. To expect that much would be to expect more from the director of Terminator Salvation: an extremely low bar.
This concept is so exhausted to the point of barely offering any new kind of substance. I do think the idea I mentioned is something worth exploring, especially with how rapidly our social climate is changing. What’s funny is that the most apt comparison is the most recent Jumanji movies, which play on expectations and has fun with placing their actors in the personas of different walks of life. The more recent film, Freaky, had a novel idea of switching a serial killer with a teenage girl. While not the most celebrated film, it does shake up the genre a bit. What I’m saying is that while the concept has been exhausted, you can find ways to divert it down different avenues.
I can’t stress enough how lazy this film is. It’s the sort of tripe everyone will forget about in a month, and will continue to live in the shadow of better films with such a concept. While funny moments happen from time to time, it’s still very reliant on familiar gags and the occasional fart and pee joke. Why do something creative when you can have a various obvious gag of the brother and sister being forced to kiss in the bodies of their parents?
A dull and forgettable movie that slaps Christmas onto the packaging so that Netflix can make a quick buck, this is one family pick that needs a severe shakeup.
Written review by Conor Johnson.