Director: McG
Writers: Victoria Strouse, Adam Sztykiel, Amy Krouse, Rosenthal
Stars: Jennifer Garner Ed Helm, Emma Myers, Brady Noon
Duration: 1 hour 41 minutes
Now streaming on Netflix
There comes a time, in just about any modern family, when the youngest member of the household is old enough to warrant the commencement of “movie night”. About midway through the pandemic, when our daughter’s tastes graduated from Australian mermaid dramas to more palatable fare like The Baby-Sitters Club and Gilmore Girls, my husband and I celebrated by screening Cary Grant and Alfred Hitchcock films for our kids, who loved them as much as we did! But then the world opened back up, and personal preferences splintered off. Our son now likes watching football games, and football dramas, and while I can stand the latter, it’s hard to imagine subjecting his little sister to Friday Night Lights’ tequila shots and threesomes. Besides, she’d much rather hide away in her room and watch some Netflix show about cake.
That same streamer’s Family Switch, out in time for the holidays, is an arrow that was unapologetically calibrated to hit straight at the heart of the multi-gen-viewing dilemma. Directed by McG and starring Jennifer Garner (who also produced, and is as plucky and puckered as ever), the yuletide drama takes a more-the-merrier approach to the trading-places trope, offering a smorgasbord of stock characters for couch-bound viewers to relate to: the Walker family has something for everyone – Sporty, Techy, Wistful and Work-Obsessed. And like so many family units who are no longer living in lockdown, the once tight-knit household is unraveling, everyone drifting off into their own private directions. Might some old-fashioned living in other people’s shoes be the portal back to together time?.
–Grace Kenganzi
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