The Switch (2010) PG-13

Middle-aged single New Yorker Kassie (Jennifer Anniston) ignores the advice of her long-time best friend and former boyfriend Wally (Jason Bateman) and decides to jump-start her child-rearing years by hiring a sperm donor.  Drunk and confused at Kassie's "pregnancy party", Wally accidentally destroys the donated sperm and replaces it with his own.  Seven years later when she moves back to New York, the supposed donor comes back into Kassie's life, but Wally realizes that both mother and child have changed him in many ways, and he can't butt out.

I went into this movie expecting something a little more screwball, maybe more like a wacky episode of "Friends", but I was pleasantly surprised.  This is not only a modern tale of procreation and romance between long-time friends, it's also a tale about parents falling in love with their children (although how someone can fall in love while picking very unrealistic lice out of a child's hair is beyond me).

As a knitter's movie, this is pretty good.  While there are some visual gags and outrageous outfits that shouldn't be missed, for the most part it's rich in dialogue that you can craft your way through.

Four laugh-out-loud moments that were mostly towards the end, and two eye-roll moments at some of the over-the-top reactions when he realized what he'd done, but nothing startling or engrossing enough to drop my knitting needles.

I give this movie a three out of five stars.  While the ending is certainly warm enough, there just isn't a lot of chemistry between Bateman and Anniston.  The shots of the photos at the end gave me a more satisfied feeling than their first kiss.  Maybe a different cast would have been better, I don't know, but they definitely gave more of a friends-kissing-chastely vibe than the excitement of new love.

It's good for a watch, and it definitely gives a fuzzy-warm ending, but I'd have to think long and hard before paying money to add it to my film collection.