Family Switch Movie Review: It’s December and the Christmas spirit is up. To celebrate the holidays, Hollywood does what Hollywood does best and brings us movies that will cheer you up with the Christmas spirit. However, in the case of Netflix’s Family Switch, that spirit couldn’t have a more manufactured feeling to it. Rather than a Christmas miracle, it feels like a Christmas tragedy that was shot out of the canon to feed the streaming service’s algorithm. Family Switch Review: Jennifer Garner and Ed Helms Body-Swap Comedy Movie Receives Mixed Response From Critics.

Directed by McG, Family Switch follows the Walkers, a family that seem to not be in sync with each other anymore. With Christmas coming up, Jess (Jennifer Garner) and Bill Walker (Ed Helms) try to get their kids, CC (Emma Myers) and Wyatt (Brady Noon), excited for Christmas but aren’t successful in doing so. However, after a chance encounter, they find themselves to have their bodies swapped with each other. The mom becomes the daughter, the father becomes the son and vice versa. With each of them having a career changing opportunity taking place on the same day, they must unite together and work to ensure that they succeed in their agendas.

Family Switch is basically Freaky Friday on steroids with a Christmas spirit. Unfortunately for the movie, it paints familiar beats that you have already seen done to death in other films and right off the bat - there is nothing new on offer over here. There isn’t a genuine emotion attached to it which just strips the movie off any sincerity it could have had.

Watch the Trailer for Family Switch:

The cast, for most part, tries to make do with the material they are given, but even then, it just ends up faltering. Ed Helms and Jennifer Garner star as the parents trying to win back the affection of their kids, and when the swap takes place, they must act like children which presents for plenty of comedic opportunities that the writers don’t even try to capitalise on. Same goes for Brady Noon and Emma Myers as well, because Family Switch just doesn’t recognise to what makes the relationship between the parents and their kids tick.

There are a few comedic moments here that will get a chuckle out of you, like the family dog also having its body swapped with an infant child, but most of it feels like something plucked straight out of the early 2000s – and not in a good way. It honestly makes for a cringey comedy that’s trying to compensate for the lack of heart that really isn’t all there. Family Switch: Jennifer Garner, Ed Helms Body-Swap Comedy To Premiere On Netflix On November 30 (View Post).

That brings me back to the manufactured comment I even made earlier in the review. The movie by the end of it has a lot to say about family values that come across as tacked on. Family Switch lives by some heavy coincidences in its plot and the final message ends up falling flat. For a Christmas film, its surprising how it failed to succeed in delivering a heartwarming story.

Final Thoughts

Family Switch is a familiar watch that carries a manufactured feeling. It lacks a certain sincerity that you would expect from Christmas films, and while there are a few funny moments that will make you chuckle, there is no denying that – overall – this is just another one of Netflix’s subpar releases. Family Switch is streaming on Netflix right now.

Rating:2.0

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 02, 2023 02:15 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).