Conference bookie::movies

171.0. "Switch" by 12116::MDNITE::RIVERS () Mon May 03 1993 17:08

    Switch is a Blake Edwards comedy/commentary on sexism and the grand
    differences between women and men.  Stars Jimmy Smits and Ellen Barkin
    (playing Perry King, don't worry, you'll figure it out soon enough).
    
    Perry King is an obnoxious, womanizing (nay, leering is a better
    adjective) ad exec who is offed early on by three former girlfriends. 
    Standing in Purgatory, he is spoken to by God (a beam of light with
    an alternating male and female voice), who can't decide where the Hell
    (excuse the pun) he should end up.  Apparantly, Mr. Brooks (the King
    character) has enough 'credits' (brownie points??) to go to Heaven, but
    alas, he's treated women very poorly throughout his life and that
    weighs heavy on God's, um, brow.
    
    So, he's sent back, with the mission:  Find a woman who actually LIKED
    Mr. Brooks.  Fair enough.  He thinks this easy enough....
    
    Ah, but enter the difficulty.  The Devil (played by Bruce Payne, most
    recent of Passenger 57--he was the terrorist, Charles Rane), doesn't
    find this a very fair test.  Not fair to him.  He complains to God--Mr.
    Brooks will use his charm and wiles on some unsuspecting bimbo and make
    her admit she likes him (when in fact, she doesn't), and THAT doesn't
    count.  God ponders this and allows that well, yes, there is that.  The
    Devil suggests that the test would be more fair if Mr. Brooks did not
    go back as a man, but as....
    
    Ellen Barkin.   You can surmise the rest of the plot from there.
    
    Ms. Barkin does a good job of ogling her own body a lot (I guess she's
    supposed to be quite a babe, but I think that anyone crammed into tight
    fitting clothes with even a modicum of a figure can be loosely
    interpreted as a babe), and doing a lot of Man Trapped in Woman's Body
    schticks.  She's coarse, uncouth and basically a bitch where the male
    Mr. Brooks was a bastard.  The gist of the movie is supposably that she
    finds out how rotten it is to be on the 'other side' of things, but
    this is where the movie pretty much loses the Message.  At no real time
    does the womanified Mr. Brooks really appear to be mistreated,
    undervalued, "seen as a piece of meat", etc.  We're supposed to believe
    it, but it doesn't come across.  
    
    There ARE some cute to funny bits here and there and by and large, the
    movie is watchable (for me, the mere presence of Bruce Payne's voice,
    eyes and hair made the film ;).   BUT the message Blake Edwards was
    trying to get across sort of makes it only by virtue of us, the viewer,
    knowing that's what he MEANT to say even if he didn't.  I, for one,
    resented the ultimate message of the Meaning of Woman revealed near the
    end (I'll explain more after a spoiler feed).  I also didn't
    particulary care for the protagonist, or any of the supporting cast,
    really, save for Jimmy Smits as Brooks's best friend.
    
    Blake Edwards certainly has done better.  Not that this was an awful
    film, just not all that great.
    
    **.5 out of ****
    
    kim
    
    Big Beef behind significant spoiler:  (warning!)
    
    
    
    I didn't like the fact that the great message Brooks learned about the
    specialness of being a woman smacked of the Apple Pie/Family Values
    "Women is made to have kids, dammit" sort of thing.  The ONLY redeeming
    quality the character seemed to find in being a woman was that he could
    experience the Wonders of childbearing, of bringing another life into
    the world, etc.  This is all well and fine--after all, if it wasn't for
    the wonders of childbearing, I would not be here today.  BUT, surely
    there is far more good in women than the ability to bear children.  I'd
    hate to think that (put on slightly unPC hat) the only thing to be
    admired about me is that I make a nifty, walking, talking incubator.
    
    I have nothing against motherhood, or really, the character finding
    this great, BUT I bristle that this is the ONLY thing about women that
    seemed to have any positive impact on him.  Depending on your POV about
    this sort of thing, your milage may vary.
    
    
                                                    

  I saw Switch a couple years ago. I thought that Ellen Barkin did a pretty
good job of playing a woman who had once been a man catching all the small
masculine mannerisms but after a while seeing her stumble around in her high
heals got old. As for Jimmy Smits and the others, they were pretty bad. 

  I don't exactly agree that the message as .0 interpreted it. I think it was
more a case of the main character having a chance to see the world from a
different view and understanding how shallow his feelings towards women had
been. The thing that .0 complains about was only part of the woman's
experience. I didn't think it was meant to be more important than any other
part. 

  A nice enough message but it was presented in a rather simplistic and
preachy way. If it had been a 1/2 hour TV sitcom it might have worked but
a two hour feature film was far too much. 

  Kind of cute for a while, but ended up being one joke preachy fluff,

  *,
  George

    I thought Barkin was fantastic ... she had the "male moves" down pat,
    which was funny to watch coming from a female body.  But I got tired
    fast of the "teetering on high heels" schtick myself ... I mean,
    really, women don't do that, why should men?  Heels are slightly
    awkward, but if women looked like Barkin did even the first time they
    put them on, we wouldn't be wearing them!
    
    But Barkin DOES have the body of a "babe" and she had the coarse
    mannerisms and the raw sexiness to carry it off.  I thought the part
    was perfectly cast.  The part I really laughed at was "her" inability
    to handle her mop ... "I can't think with all this hair!" which is
    something women have had to do forever, but few men really have to put
    up with!
    
    It was a very unusual movie and I thought it was entertaining and I'd
    give it ...
    
    *** out of ****
    
    Leslie