Body-swap comedy has peril, mild language, drinking.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 10+?
Any Positive Content?
Violence & Scariness
some
Characters fall down frequently, sometimes in ways that look very painful though they are always fine. A baby and dog swap bodies, putting the baby in harm's way -- including a scene where the dog runs away and almost gets hit by a car. A fistfight breaks out at a high school party. A man is kicked in the groin. A woman falls down stairs. A car nearly crashes in a scene where a family is racing to get somewhere; at one point, the mom stretches out to reach something on the hood of the car while it's speeding. A teen is so scared of being bullied that he finds alternative ways to get down a school hallway.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.
A married couple kisses, as do two high schoolers. A high school bully teases another that he's "starting to cream" when a girl walks by. A mom friend describes something with apparently sexual overtones using hand gestures, but her voice is obscured.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.
Appreciate what others do for you, even if you don't witness it with your own eyes. Teens need space and support to explore their own interests and passions. Parents need time alone to stay connected.
Positive Role Models
some
Each of the members of a family feels overstressed and underappreciated. It takes walking in another's shoes for a day for them to empathize with each other's feelings and to appreciate each other more fully. Jess learns to delegate and rely more on others. Bill gains an appreciation for his son's abilities. The teenagers realize what their parents have sacrificed for them.
Diverse Representations
a little
Characters gain insights about each other's lives by walking in their shoes for a day, a lesson that could be applied more broadly to understanding and empathizing with others. Several important secondary characters -- like friends, bandmates, work colleagues, and the fairy godmother who generates the body swap -- are played by Latino and Black actors.
Parents need to know that the comedy Family Switch, starring Jennifer Garner and Ed Helms, takes the Freaky Friday concept a step further, with multiple family members switching bodies. It has positive messages about empathy and valuing family, but characters suffer a slew of accidents played for laughs, and the main characters spend most of the film unsure whether they'll get back to their own lives. Language includes "hell," "ass," "butt," "loser," "hag," "dork,"and more insults, and there's potty humor. Adults drink wine, and teenagers drink from red cups at a high school house party. Characters frequently fall down, including down stairs and over a railing. A baby and a dog swap bodies, putting the baby in harm's way. A fistfight breaks out at a party, a man is kicked in the groin, and a car nearly crashes multiple times in one speeding sequence. A teen is so scared of being bullied that he finds alternative ways to get down a school hallway. A married couple kisses, as do two high schoolers, and one teen bullies another by saying that he's "starting to cream" when a girl walks by. Each of the main characters feels overstressed and underappreciated, and they all gain insights into one another's lives by walking in their shoes for a day -- a lesson that could be applied more broadly to understanding and empathizing with people from all walks of life. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails.
There's an egregiously racist joke, there's a decent amount of language. The movie is pretty awful.
What's the Story?
Jess (Jennifer Garner) and Bill (Ed Helms) are a married couple with three children and little free time in FAMILY SWITCH. They sense their teen kids pulling away and feel increasingly disconnected as a family. On a holiday outing to a planetarium to witness a unique event involving aligned planets, the family's arguments -- none feels understood by the others -- come to a head. An eccentric woman (Rita Moreno) appears to take their photo and suggests they must fix what's broken. The next morning, they wake up in one another's bodies. Mom is now daughter CC (Emma Myers) and vice versa, and dad and son Wyatt (Brady Noon) have swapped places. It couldn't come at a worse time -- Jess has a promotion-pending presentation at work, Wyatt has an interview for early admission to Yale, an important scout is coming to watch CC's soccer match, and Bill's band, Dad or Alive, has a live gig.
Body swap films are nothing new, so this one innovates by mixing up the whole family, creating some silly and emotional situations but not many serious belly laughs. Swapping the baby and the dog was a stroke of scripting genius in Family Switch, and the random inclusion of German actor Matthias Schweighöfer as their sitter was inspired. All of the actors are on point and manage to make the swaps seem somehow believable. Helms and Noon really stand out here, and a scene of the parents in the kids' bodies at a high school party is especially memorable. Listen for inside jokes about stars Garner and Helms.
The swap is, naturally, where the most humorous situations arise, but also where the film's shortcomings are most evident. Having this one body-switched day be the most crucial in each of their lives feels overly contrived. Likewise, making all the characters (except the sweetly bumbling dad) superstars at what they do makes them feel less realistic or potentially even less likable. Eschewing more insightful or subtle lessons, the film strings together a series of situations. One character is given a terrible bout of gas and others are forced to perform in activities they're obviously not suited for. Still, the film ends on a sweet note, and it could make an enjoyable family night choice.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about what the characters learn about themselves and each other in Family Switch.
If you could swap bodies with one person, who would it be and why?
What other films have you watched where characters switch bodies with each other? How does this one compare?
How do the family members develop empathy for each other? Why is this an important character strength?
MPAA explanation:
suggestive material, language, teen partying and some thematic elements
Last updated:
January 20, 2024
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