Subject: REVIEW: SWITCH

From: [email-masked] (Laurie Mann)
Date: 21 May 91 12:32:13 GMT

SWITCH
		       A film review by Laurie Mann
			Copyright 1991 Laurie Mann

     SWITCH is a clever idea with a very strong lead in search of a
decent script and supporting characters.  If it weren't for Ellen
Barkin's outstanding performance, it wouldn't be worth anyone's time.
It was a major disappointment for me, especially since Blake Edwards'
previous gender-bender (VICTOR/VICTORIA) was perceptive, sharp, and very
funny for the entire movie.  SWITCH is just plain muddled.

     There was a movie with overtones of SWITCH made in the early
1980s---I think it was called GOODBYE CHARLIE, and Debbie Reynolds plays
the reincarnated man.  I think it was a funnier movie than SWITCH.  In
SWITCH, a slime named Steve Brooks is murdered while in the company of
three of his ex-lovers.  Brooks is sent back to Earth to find one woman
who loves him, or be sent straight to hell.  The devil makes it more
complicated for him by giving Steve an instant sex change.  So Steve,
now calling himself Amanda, has to cope with being an MCP in a woman's
body that he is *quite* attracted to.  Amanda is hysterical at first,
but suddenly realizes she can either be a woman or be dead.  She decides
to live with it.

     SWITCH is one of those movies that virtually every funny scene in
the movie is in the trailer.  The script just refuses to take many
chances, and the supporting characters aren't at all interesting.  The
hair and high heel jokes turn tired instantly, but are repeated for
about an hour of the movie.  I think Amanda might have dressed like a
super-fem once or twice, but would have quit in favor of comfort.  The
sparks never really fly between Amanda and Walter (Jimmy Smits, an
earnest performance but basically a flat one), as drinking buddies with
a twist.

     The one part of the movie that *might* have been interesting was
the possible relationship between Amanda and Ms. Flaxon (Lorraine
Braccho).  Amanda knows that Ms.  Flaxon is gay, and figures she can bed
her and get her business.  But Amanda faints rather than make love to a
woman, because, as one of his ex-lovers reminds him "You're a homophobe,
so you couldn't make love to a woman."  Apparently, an earlier cut of
the movie *did* land them in bed, but it was re-edited.  A pity.

     The only supporting character who "had a life" was JoBeth Williams
as one of Amanda's murderous ex-lovers.  She was *very* funny as the
flustered, rich murderer who only lived to party.

     This movie is a six on the Chuck scale, but only because of
Barkin's performance.  She was terrific.  Otherwise, stay home and watch
VICTOR/VICTORIA or TOOTSIE if you want to see a good gender-bender
comedy.

     A comment on the ending:  Did anyone *not* see that one coming??????

Laurie Mann
[email-masked]
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From: [email-masked] (Mark R. Leeper)
Date: 21 May 91 12:34:15 GMT

SWITCH
		       A film review by Mark R. Leeper
			Copyright 1991 Mark R. Leeper

	  Capsule review:  This is a tasteless, sexist film about
     why it is bad to be a male chauvinist in a strange world that
     bears little resemblance to mine.  A brainless man is
     murdered and returns to earth as a brainless woman.  SWITCH
     is Blake Edwards begin part of the problem and pretending he
     is part of the solution.  Rating: -1 (-4 to +4).

     I think everybody knows that Blake Edwards is a successful filmmaker.
I get the impression that he retreated into Beverly Hills some time around
when hula hoops were in and he has not stepped out into the real world
since.  That is fine by me.  He writes funny movies like the Clouseau films
set in a never-Never-Land-Europe or set in his hermetically sealed world
where you can go to one store to buy clothes and spend $41,000, and where if
you catch someone by surprise she has only $3000 in her purse.  (These are
plot elements from SWITCH.)  That is fine.  Edwards bragging about how much
money people in his class have is no worse than Bob Fosse bragging about how
much sex he gets in ALL THAT JAZZ.  Edwards has made a lot of people laugh
and he is welcome to his world.  Where the rub comes is where he starts
making comedies with supposed social relevance.  In SWITCH, Edwards tackles
the thorny issue of male chauvinism in an Edwards-Never-Land among his usual
assortment of under-dressed buxom women and mannequin men.  The sexism in
his world is the blatant stupid sexism of boors and is of an entirely
different character from the subtle and ambiguous sexism that occurs in my
world.

     Steve Brooks (played by Perry King) is successful in advertising.
("Advertising" is Hollywood shorthand for he isn't a policeman and he
doesn't make films.  Ever notice how often advertising shows up as an
occupation in films.  How many films can you name where the main character
is in plumbing supply or auto parts or has made a career of software
engineering?  How many people work for a corporation with more than one
level of management above them?)  Brooks is going about his humdrum life--he
is having a hot tub party with three naked women--when he is murdered.
Heaven, appalled by his sexism, sends him back to earth where he must stay
until he can find a woman to like him.  But he is sent back as a woman.
This situation has a lot of possibilities, some comedic, some silly, some
interesting, some controversial.  Edwards toys with most of the
possibilities, but flinches every time he gets too close to ideas that might
be interesting or controversial.  Mostly we see Amanda Brooks (Ellen Barkin
as the female reincarnation) feeling herself, feeling other women, and
wearing skirts too short and sitting with her legs apart like a man so the
camera can get crotch shots.  Most irritating is the misfire running gag of
her stumbling around on high-heeled shoes.  It is intended to get funnier
each time and it simply gets more and more annoying.  Apparently high-heeled
shoes are the only kind women wear in Edwards-Never-Land.  Barkin goes
through the movie oscillating between playing a really boorish male
chauvinist and getting fed up with men treating her the way she treats
women.  Edwards's idea of what sexism is about seems to be more connected
with men who get too much sex or who proposition strange women in the
street, actions more common in Edwards-Never-Land than in my world.  It does
not seem to have much to do with equal pay for equal work or even about
filmmakers doing films about naked women in hot tubs.  Incidentally, equal
pay is notably NOT and issue in this film.  The main character is paid more
as a woman than she was as a man for the same job.

     SWITCH is a film that leaves a very bad taste in your mouth, and more
so the more you think about the film.  SWITCH this one off.  For the sake of
a good, if not very well-chosen, acting job by Barkin and for some
competence in being entertaining I rate this film a charitable -1 on the -4
to +4 scale.

					Mark R. Leeper
					att!mtgzy!leeper
					[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Roger Snappy Rubio)
Date: 31 May 91 16:42:29 GMT

SWITCH
		       A film review by Roger Snappy Rubio
			Copyright 1991 Roger Snappy Rubio

SWITCH
Starring: Ellen Barkin, Jimmy Smits, Jobeth Williams, Lorraine Bracco
Produced by Tony Adams
Written and Directed by Blake Edwards

     An interesting movie.  That's the least I could say about SWITCH, a
new comedy from the man who brought us VICTOR/VICTORIA and 10, the one
and only Blake Edwards.  Blake Edwards has quite a reputation for 
directing the awkward and uncomfortable, and he has done a good job
directing Ellen Barkin in this film.  I humbly think that this movie
could do wonders for Barkin, but for Edwards, I don't think it will have
such a profound impact.

     SWITCH is the story of womanizer Steve Brooks.  Steve has been
rotten to women all his life, treating them as if they were objects to
be played with and enjoyed.  Every female he has ever come in contact
with hates his guts.  So one night, three of his former girlfriends
decide to throw him a surprise party, which they notify him of.  The
surprise, however, is a big one--it's his death.

     Now that Steve is stuck in purgatory, God must decide whether or
not he goes to heaven or hell (good move by Edwards making God's voice
both male and female--it satisfies everyone).  Since he is on equal
footing on both good and bad deeds, God decides to send him back to
Earth,  and  challenges him to find just one female that likes him.  If
he does, he goes to heaven.  If not... well, you know.  But the devil
intervenes, saying he has as much a right to Steve as God does, and if
he comes back as a man, it will be too easy for him.  So the devil
suggests a rather interesting idea ... he should come back as a woman.

     So I've spoiled the first part of the story; I won't spoil the rest
of it.  This movie had enormous potential for even more funny scenes
than the ones already in it (don't get me wrong, it has it's fair
share), and it explores several issues about what it's like being a
woman, but it never really follows through on most of them.  I think the
problem is that there is so much that can happen to a man in a woman's
body that every possible situation could not fit into one movie.  The
ones Edwards does explore are some pretty awkward situations, and he
handles them quite well.

     I cannot say enough about Ellen Barkin's performance.  She always
had a little touch of stereotypical masculinity in her acting (which
makes me think Edwards wrote this screenplay with her in mind) and it
makes her perfect for this role.  She talks like a man, sits like a man,
and even walks like one very convincingly.  She does everything I think
a man would do in a woman's body without realizing it, and it provides
for some very funny scenes.  Barkin was superb--tremendous--excellent!

     The story, however, is a bit rushed.  As I said before, there's
only so much that can happen in one movie.  One thing happens right
after the other, as though Edwards wanted to get in as much as he can.
The closest movie to this one that Edwards had made previously would
have to be VICTOR/VICTORIA, which dealt with male homosexuality.  SWITCH
deals somewhat with female homosexuality, but in a relativistic sort of
way (in one way, it's not homosexuality, because the subject is a man in
a woman's body, but on the other hand, he is a woman through and
through!).  And in my opinion the film does not deal with it enough.
Perhaps Edwards should have focused only on what it's like to be a woman
and not have introduced the lesbian aspect.  That would have made room
for some more funny situations.  Also, although it might be trivial, I
must mention that I found the scenes where any of the characters are
drunk to be unconvincing.  They acted as if they had a subtle form of
hiccups.  But all in all, they did pretty good.

     SWITCH is definitely better than some of Edwards' previous movies
(a la A FINE MESS), but not better than all of them.  I believe it is a
worthy candidate for induction into the Blake Edwards Hall of Fame.  I
think this film might wind up being compared extensively to TOOTSIE
(with Dustin Hoffman) by the critics (as it is the closest relative as
far as the plot line goes).  As far as this comparison is concerned,
SWITCH does not stand on its own.  Nevertheless, it is a good movie, and
worthy of at least matinee price at the box office.

		THE SNAPMAN
		[email-masked]
		(Roger Rubio)

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From: [email-masked] (Janet M. Lafler)
Date: 31 May 91 16:42:39 GMT

SWITCH
		       A film review by Janet M. Lafler
			Copyright 1991 Janet M. Lafler

     SWTICH is a sexual role-reversal comedy directed by Blake Edwards
and starring Ellen Barkin which has funny and insightful moments, but
also has a great many holes.  

     The premise is simple:  Steve Brooks is an inveterate womanizer
hated by women everywhere.  After being killed by three former
girlfriends he lands in Purgatory, where he is told that he is a
borderline case; he has done enough good to be eligible for heaven, but
has behaved so horribly to women that he's also a candidate for hell.
To resolve the difficulty, he's sent back to earth to find one female
who likes him.  Thanks to a suggestion from the Devil, he goes back as a
woman.  

     The bulk of the movie deals with Steve (in his female persona,
Amanda) trying to get by as a woman for long enough to find a woman who
likes him.  As Amanda, Barkin turns in a great performance.  Tottering
on her high heels, tugging at her unfamiliar female finery, walking,
talking and gesturing in masculine fashion, she performs just broadly
enough to be funny without being ridiculous.

     The movie deals with the various possibilities inherent in this
switch with uneven success.  Steve's reaction to his female body,
including his persistent habit of acting as if it were someone else's
body, is well-handled, and often quite funny.  ("Did you get a look at
my legs?"  s/he asks best friend Walter, played by Jimmy Smits.)  His
sexual adjustment is also handled well; there is no easy way for him to
slide into either lesbianism or heterosexuality as a woman.

     There are problems, though.  I found myself wondering whether a man
who had just turned into a woman would dress like that.  There's no
reason that Steve/Amanda immediately has to put on four-inch stiletto
heels.  Then there's the question of just what's good about Steve
Brooks.  Walter mentions that he's done many kind things, but we're
never told what they are, and I find it hard to understand how someone
who's supposedly so good could really be such a jerk to women.  All
women.  (Either his mother's dead or she hates him too; at any rate,
she's never mentioned.)  And there's at least one glaring continuity
error.  (Hint:  I don't know anyone whose hair could grow eight inches
in five months.)

     On a more serious and subtle level, the movie-makers seem to be
assuming that spending a few days or months as a woman can make a man
really understand what it is like to be a woman, a premise I find
unconvincing.  (A similar transformation occurs in TOOTSIE.)  Only a few
days after the switch,  Amanda complains about how an ad doesn't really
reflect women's experience; in fact, once Steve becomes a woman he
pretty quickly begins spouting feminist rhetoric.  While I would like to
believe that any man who woke up one day in a woman's body would become
a feminist, there are limits to what makes sense.  When Amanda starts
holding forth on date rape, it doesn't ring true.  In the end, the
movie's feminist pieties strike me as rather cheap.  As a comedy, this
movies succeeds, but when it tries to get serious about the differences
between men's and women's experiences, it's often frustrating and
shallow.

     SWITCH is an engaging movie, worth going to see simply for Barkin's
performance.  (Supporting performances are competent, but not exciting.)
Pacing falters somewhat in the last third of the movie, but in general
Barkin's energy keeps things moving.

Janet Lafler
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