Home > Movies > Switch > Reviews

Switch Review:
Ellen Barkin was born to play a foul-mouthed lady killer whom everyone hates. Or, at least, that's the impression one gets from Blake Edwards' Switch, in which Barkin uncannily captures the swaggering insensitivity of a handsome jerk, making for a succession of funny scenes that keeps the film moving. She looks like she puts on her makeup with a trowel and brushes her hair with a rake -- appropriate for a reincarnated man who never paid attention to women's needs, so he should have no hope of knowing how to act like one. Barkin is raw, crass, and funny. Edwards' last successful comedy to date bears his usual screwball trademarks, and it is typically unsentimental until a pat ending that lets the former Steve Brooks off the hook too easily, and in too contrived a manner. Until right at the end, he doesn't markedly improve his behavior, even though he is purportedly learning lessons while seeing through the eyes of his former prey. His treatment of Lorraine Bracco's lesbian character is especially harsh and unresolved, such that it goes beyond mere characterization and hints at a deeper meanness embedded into the film. Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide