'Switch': Does anybody have a baster?

The third sperm-donor comedy of the year, "The Switch" faces an uphill swim at theaters. The subject has already been treated thoughtfully ("The Kids Are All Right," starring Annette Bening and Julianne Moore as a gay couple with kids) and carelessly ("The Back-Up Plan," in which Jennifer Lopez is rescued from single motherhood in the nick of time), which potentially leaves "The Switch" little room to establish its own identity.

Fortunately, the movie has good genes and even a bit of a pedigree. Its inspiration comes from "Baster," a 1996 short story by Jeffrey Eugenides ("The Virgin Suicides") originally published in The New Yorker. Allan Loeb's script - essentially a whole new story - is smart, sensitive and filled with real affection for its characters. And those characters are nicely played by a well-chosen cast.

That includes Jennifer Aniston as Kassie, a single woman who, in the absence of Mr. Right, settles for a sperm donor. This horrifies her longtime friend Wally (Jason Bateman), a stubborn misfit who can't admit to his real feelings for her, especially when she finds the perfect package in an athletic do-gooder named Roland (Patrick Wilson). Wally intervenes, in his fashion, and years later Kassie finds herself raising a stubborn misfit of a son, Sebastian (an endearing Thomas Robinson).

By giving his character a genuinely dark edge, Bateman not only saves the film from getting too cozy, but he sands the protective veneer off Aniston and reveals something real underneath. For the first time in years, the actress takes on a visible glow when she's near her leading man. You could almost say he gives her new life.

How Jennifer Anniston's 'Switch' was conceived

Jennifer Aniston says she was drawn to "The Switch" - the first project to come out of her production company, Echo Films - because she liked its contemporary subject matter.

"It supports what's sort of currently happening in our world today," she says. "We, as women, have choices and options of when and how to have children." She has friends and acquaintances who have experienced the heartbreak of infertility or have been unable to find the right partner when they were ready to have children, and "The Switch" reflects that dilemma.

It's a subject that's been discussed quite a lot lately in Hollywood. Earlier this year, Jennifer Lopez starred as a single career woman who opted for in vitro fertilization because she couldn't find Mr. Right in "The Back-Up Plan." And Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson track down their gay mothers' sperm donor in the dramedy "The Kids Are All Right."

But Hollywood's interest in the laboratory baby phenomenon wasn't evident three years ago, when "The Switch" was presented to Aniston and her producing partner, Kristin Hahn.

"The story is rooted in reality," she says, "and jumping off from there is always more interesting to me." - Entertainment News Wire