Synopsis
Steve Brooks, a sexist womanizer, is killed by a group of his angry former lovers. In heaven, he makes a bargain with God for redemption and agrees to return to Earth. Once there, he must have a sincere relationship with a female and make her fall in love with him. If not, Steve's soul will become the property of the devil. But the devil hedges his bet, and Steve is reincarnated as a woman named Amanda Brooks.
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Cast
- Ellen BarkinAmanda Brooks
- Jimmy SmitsWalter Stone
- JoBeth WilliamsMargo Brofman
- Lorraine BraccoSheila Faxton
- Tony RobertsArnold Freidkin
- Perry KingSteve Brooks
- Bruce PayneThe Devil
- Lysette AnthonyLiz
- Victoria MahoneyFelicia
- Basil HoffmanHiggins
Recommendations
- 70
Los Angeles Times
In the end, Switch isn’t a top-grade Edwards movie--though it shares with his best, a sparkling directorial panache and charm, a charge of risque humanism, a wizardly delight in body language. - 63
Chicago Sun-Times
If Edwards had somehow found a way to really grapple with the implications of his story - if he had pushed to see how far he could go - Switch might have been a truly revolutionary comedy, on the order of Tootsie but more sexually frank. Unfortunately, he seems determined to make everything palatable to the sensibilities of the kinds of people who probably wouldn’t attend this kind of movie in the first place - and, in the process, he takes a daring idea and plays it safe. Too safe. - 50
Time Out
There are some funny moments, and though she hams it up at times, Barkin is very good in her first comic role. But Edwards milks the comedy, keeps the sexual comment to a minimum, and brings the film to a silly, cop-out resolution. - 40
Washington Post
Edwards wants to leap deliriously between gender roles and stereotypes. But he treads on every possible corn, from heterosexual to lesbian. - 40
Empire
Certainly crude and unrefined are among the adjectives that apply to this sex farce, along with derivative and shallow. Most important - and perhaps, sad -of all, is unfunny. - 40
The New York Times
Nothing in Switch is that plausible or compelling. Any movie that depends on the presence of either the Devil or God is asking for trouble, and Switch has them both. - 40
Variety
Switch is a faint-hearted sex comedy that doesn't have the courage of its initially provocative convictions. Undemanding audiences will get a few laughs from the notion of a man parading around in Ellen Barkin's body. - 30
Austin Chronicle
The only redeeming thing in Switch is Barkin's vulgar and adept physical performance of a man literally trapped in a woman's body. She's in a constant state of discomfort, whether it's trying to walk in high heels (a sight gag that quickly gets old), scratching her breasts, or sitting with her legs apart in a tight miniskirt. Her presence, however, is a small consolation in a movie that takes the battle of the sexes and turns it into a pointless skirmish.
