FAMILY SWITCH (NETFLIX) (2023)

SYNOPSIS: Jess and Bill Walker are doing their best to keep their family connected as their children grow older, more independent, and more distant. When a chance encounter with an astrological reader causes the family to wake up to a full body switch, on the morning of the most important day of each of their lives, can the Walkers unite to land a promotion, college interview, record deal and soccer tryout? 

MOVIE REVIEW:

If you run out of ideas, look for an old idea instead of coming up with fresh ones. That’s Hollywood for you.

In this body swapping comedy directed by McG (Charlie’s Angels, Terminator Salvation), Jennifer Garner plays Jess Walker, a workaholic architect and strict mother to teenagers CC, a talented soccer player, Wyatt who is aiming to go to Yale and a baby named Miles. Her husband is Bill (Ed Helms), a school music teacher who still dreams of forming a band.

Christmas is near the corner but the older kids have no interest celebrating it except squabbling with their parents. On a fateful night to the Griffith Observatory, a mysterious fortune teller/Lyft driver (Rita Moreno) helps the Walkers in taking a family picture and the very next day to their horror, Jess has traded body with her daughter while Bill has traded body with his son.

Family Switch is the busier version of Freaky Friday and even Garner’s own 13 Going on 30 (gets a mention by Ed Helms’ character in the movie by the way) although the material is based on a children’s book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. However, the main idea and life lessons remain the same. Parents and children must see things from each other’s perspective after they switched bodies and learn how to adapt, be more understanding and hopeful.

CC has to pose as her mom at her architectural firm. Mom has to be a soccer player on the field. Bill has to ace his son’s Yale interview. These are just some of the shenanigans concocted by McG and his writers to fill up the 105 minutes movie but fortunately, Garner and Helms are such likeable actors that you are largely entertained by them for the entire duration. For some reason, Matthias Schweighöfer from Army of the Dead appears as the Walkers’ baby and dog sitter, Rolf. Expect some potty humour and a horrible looking CGI baby.

In the most efficient way possible, Netflix even throws in some holiday theme magic into the body swapping comedy assuming fake snow and dog peeing under the Christmas tree is your thing. We kind of feel bad for Garner and Helms for they are stuck in these sort of middling, forgettable streaming productions liked Yes Day and Coffee & Kareem. Family Switch adds to their resume as yet another overdone title.

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee