2010 may well be remembered as the year of the sperm movies. First it was The Back-up Plan, then The Kids are Alright and now we have The Switch.

Jennifer Aniston plays a 40-year-old woman who decides she wants a baby, but there’s no man in her life, despite Jason Bateman, playing her best friend, always hanging around and hoping.

She finds a donor whose sperm she wants but a drunken Bateman replaces the donor’s sperm with his own, unbeknownst to all, and even he doesn’t remember doing the switch.

Aniston does get pregnant and moves away, but seven years later she returns with her young son, played by a very cute Thomas Robinson.

Robinson is nothing like his jock sperm donor daddy (Patrick Wilson), but to a few observers he does bear an amazing similarity to Bateman. The big revelation will come, but it takes awhile for Bateman to figure it out as he develops a close relationship to the boy. Meanwhile Aniston begins a relationship with Wilson.

This is supposed to be a star vehicle for Aniston, but Bateman outshines her, his best big screen role. His scenes with his son, especially before he realizes the fact, are especially good. His character evolves and matures as he comes to understand how his life has changed because of Aniston and her son. This movie doesn’t have that much humour, it’s more about relationships, and the ending is no surprise.

Rating: three deer of five

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Alf Cryderman is a Red Deer freelance writer and old movie buff.