The other day I was scrolling through Netflix unsure of what I wanted to watch. I was going to eat breakfast/lunch and obviously, I needed a show or movie to watch while I ate. I went to the Newly Added section of Netflix and was swiping through, and then I saw a new Christmas movie they recently released called The Family Switch.
I saw it, clicked on it, and noticed it was a Christmas movie and was immediately intrigued because we’re getting closer to the holiday season, so I was thrilled that there was a new Christmas movie for me to watch.
While I’ve seen many movies where the mom and daughter switch places, I had never seen a movie where the whole family switches places which was the reason I decided to watch it in the first place.
At the beginning of the movie, it almost immediately introduces the five people in their family and their dog. It felt very chaotic when everyone was introduced all at once. It quickly introduces everyone’s personalities and styles and also shows how chaotic their lives are.
In the first few minutes of the movie, the whole family, including the dog, ends up going to a planetarium to watch a planetary alignment for the brother, Wyatt played by Brady Noon. On their way in, a fortune teller stops them and tries talking to them but they rush forward away from her even though she keeps on talking. As they get in there, they all want to get a family picture in front of the telescope. Their mom, Jess, played by Jennifer Garner, asks a woman to take a picture of them, and it turns out to be the fortune teller. While they all pose for a picture, something happens which makes them fall over, and break the telescope, and the fortune teller gets it all in the picture on the phone. They head home, and the next morning they wake up in switched places.
It took me about three days while watching it on and off, to finally finish the whole movie because I couldn’t get myself to finish it. The whole movie was immensely predictable, and I knew exactly what was going to happen throughout the whole movie. I knew that the whole family was going to hate each other at the beginning and say how easy it would be to be each other, and then once they switched places, they realized how hard it was and everything went wrong, and then at the end, everything gets solved. I feel like there are hundreds of switching places movies and they all feel the same. I just don’t get the point of making more if they’re going to be the same thing.
Overall, it was a well-put-together movie. The only problems I had with it were how predictable it was, and it had some weird scenes that were unnecessary to add. I’d say it was a pretty decent movie, I just wish it weren’t as predictable as all of the other ones.
